A Chance For Romance
by xxiCarlyFanxx
Summary: Carly wrote a play for English class. Her teacher loved it, and the school drama group will do it, but everyone has to audition for the roles. Who will play the main characters? And will this play change their lives forever? SEDDIE :D
1. Chapter 1: The Announcement

**Author's Note: Hello people of the world! =D**

**I know I'm already writing 'iKnow it, and so does everybody', but this idea suddenly occured to me during History class, and I just couldn't resist XP**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly! *sighs sadly* Yeah, I know, sad story.**

**And I don't own the play 'A Chance For Romance' either!**

**And now, enjoy!**

**:D**

**EDIT (08/11/12): I'm currently rewriting the first few chapters of this story, so if you're reading this note, this is the rewritten first chapter. I'll explain things better on the author's note in chapter 14. Every edited chapter will have a note like this one. ;)**

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Chapter 1: The Announcement

Ugh, I hate mornings.

I never really understood why school had to start so early in the morning. I mean, what's the point of it if everyone is almost half-asleep during the first few classes of the day? It's not like you can learn anything when you're practically drooling all over your textbooks.

I sighed as I got the books I'd need for my first class of the day out of my locker. I just really wanted to be home right now, and not be here in this prison.

After about a minute, Carly suddenly rounded the corner, and as soon as she spotted me standing by my locker, a bright smile broke out on her lips. Carly must be the only person on Earth that somehow managed to smile so early in the morning.

"Hey, Sam," she greeted me, the smile not leaving her features for even a second.

"Hey," I replied, my voice completely lacking enthusiasm. I really didn't want to be here right now. "Why do you look so happy?"

Carly shrugged lightly in response as she entered the combination in her locker. "Why should I not be happy?" she asked me, and I simply chuckled at her logic, shaking my head lightly.

As I closed the door of my locker shut and leaned against it, Carly began telling me about how Spencer had set a cup full of iced tea on fire the night before. Even though I had somewhat gotten used to Spencer's unexplainable ability of setting things on fire by simply looking at them over the last couple of years, it still never failed to amuse me.

We talked for some time, until Fredward suddenly came into view as he rounded the corner and paused when he was standing right beside Carly.

"Hey, Carls," he greeted Carly, smiling lightly at her, and I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes at him. His crush on Carly was truly pathetic, but he just didn't seem capable of realizing that.

"Hey, Freddie," Carly greeted him back, returning his smile.

"Sam," he said, the smile instantly leaving his face.

"Dork," I replied.

"Demon," he said, and then walked away, making his way over to his locker, which was just a few steps down the hallway.

_He's such a dork,_ I thought to myself as I watched him leave, before turning my attention back to Carly. We continued chatting for a while, until Mr. Howard suddenly descended the staircase that led to the second floor of the school and entered the main hall, bearing his bullhorn.

"Everyone, I need your attention for a moment," Mr. Howard spoke into his bullhorn, but no one paid attention to him. "Everyone, just be quiet for a moment," he tried once again, but just like the previous time he had spoken, no one even looked in his direction. It was obvious that he was already losing his patience, but I don't think anywhere cared. Well, that's what you get for being the most hated teacher in the school; apart from Ms. Briggs, of course. "SHUT UP YOU LITTLE DEMONS!"

That made everyone pause and look at him.

Now that he had everyone's full attention, Mr. Howard cleared his throat and spoke in the bullhorn once again, this time using his usual tone of voice.

"This year, the school drama group will be performing a play called 'A Chance For Romance', which was written by one of our students, Carly Shay." Everyone looked at Carly for a brief moment, before directing their attention back to Howard. "But the drama group doesn't have enough people to perform it, so everyone is required to audition for a role in the play," he continued. "Anyone who doesn't get a role will be required to make part of the production crew, which will be responsible for the lightning, sound effects and such." He made a short pause as he let his eyes scan the hall. "Whoever doesn't audition will lose half of their English grade of the semester, so if you don't want to fail this year, I suggest you be here tomorrow evening. And if you already have something planned for tomorrow evening, then that's your problem."

Everyone remained frozen for a moment, simply watching as Howard made his way down the hallway and vanished into the teacher's room.

"I can't believe this!" I said as soon as he was gone. "Why did you have to write that play?"

"It was an assignment!" Carly told me defensely. "And it's not my fault that Ms. Briggs loved it!"

I scoffed. "Whatever," I said, shaking my head lightly. "I just really don't want to be part of a play."

"Why not? Imagine how fun it would be!" Carly told me, smiling brightly. "And it's not like you have a choice, anyway." She paused for a moment. "Wait, you're not considering not auditioning, right?" Carly asked me, suddenly sounding worried.

"Of course not!" I told her. "It's not like I can afford losing half the grade of the semester, and I really don't wanna have to repeat a year."

Carly seemed extremely relieved at my words. "Good," she said. The bell suddenly rang, signaling the beginning of the first class.

"We can go over to my place after school so I can tell you about the play, because I know you probably didn't listen when Ms. Briggs told us about the story," Carly said as we made our way to Mr. Lenning's class.

I chuckled. "I'm pretty sure I fell asleep."

Carly simply chuckled, rolling her eyes and shaking her head lightly at me as we continued walking.

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"Sam, come over here!" Carly called from the spot where she was sitting in front of the computer screen.

I looked up from the plate full of ham that was currrently resting on my lap. "Why?" I asked, not feeling like moving from where I was sitting on the couch.

"I found the original file of the story here in the computer," she told me, smiling. "I know they made a few modifications when they turned it into a script, but it was nothing major, and since you refused to get one of the guides with the lines of the character you'll audition for, I think it's a good idea for you to read it with me."

"I don't see how that's a good idea," I said, tossing a slice of ham into my mouth.

"Well, don't you think that you should at least know what the play is about when you audition?" she asked me.

I shrugged lightly. "It's not like I'm gonna get any role in it, so why bother?"

"Sam, come on!" Carly whined, but when she realized that I wasn't willing to move anytime soon, she sighed in defeat. "Fine," she said, giving in. "I'll just tell you the story, then."

With that, Carly began talking about how the idea for the play had crossed her mind. According to her, she had always loved Romeo and Juliet and that whole forbidden love thing, so she decided to write the story as an assigment for Ms. Briggs's class. Apparently, Ms. Briggs had loved the story, and since the school drama group had still been looking for a play to perform, Ms. Briggs and the teacher who was responsible for group decided to give Carly's story a shot. They turned it into a script and, with Carly's approval, decided to present it in the end of the school year, which was over eight months away from now.

After telling me everything about how her story had become a play, Carly then began to tell me the story itself. Apparently, it was some cheesy love story about a girl and a boy - Mabel and Bruno - who fell in love but couldn't be together because there was some kind of rivalry between their families, or something like that. And as Carly began going on and on about the story, my eyelids began to grow heavy. I tried to concentrate on the words Carly was saying, but her voice seemed to be coming from far, far away...

"Sam!"

My eyes popped open and I jumped awake. "I didn't do it, I swear!" I said as I looked around frantically, only to find Carly staring at me with an annoyed look on her face.

"How long have you been asleep?" Carly asked me, crossing her arms over her chest.

I shrugged lightly in response, looking down. "Well..." I hesitated for a brief moment, but I decided to tell her the truth. "Since a few seconds after you started telling me the story," I admitted.

Carly shook her head in disbelief, but she looked slightly amused. "I can't believe it."

The front door of the Shays' apartment was suddenly pushed open, and Freddork walked inside.

"Yo yo," he said, closing the front door shut behind himself. "What are you two doing?"

"Well, I _was _telling Sam about the play, but _someone _fell asleep and left me talking to myself for almost twenty minutes," Carly told him, putting an exaggerated amount of emphasis on the word 'someone'.

"Why am I not surprised?" Freddie asked, seeming completely amused by what Carly had just told him. I would have responded to that with an insult, but I was a little too busy with going back to enjoying my ham to do it.

"So..." Carly began. "Are you getting ready for tomorrow's auditions?" Carly asked Freddie.

"Well..." Freddie hesitated for a moment. "Yeah, of course," he said, but anyone would have been able to tell that he was lying.

Carly sighed at his response. "Not you too!" she said, sounding pretty frustrated. "You guys, why aren't you making any effort?"

"Because it's not like we're gonna get a role in the play," I replied simply, shrugging lightly at her. "I mean, just look at him," I continued, gesturing at Freddie with my hand, which made him raise his eyebrows curiously at me. "He's the king of the nerds! They're probably just gonna put him to play with all that tech stuff in the backstage." Freddie rolled his eyes at my words, but he didn't say anything, since he probably knew that what I said was actually true. "And I'll probably get stuck with opening and closing the curtains."

Carly rolled her eyes at me, shaking her head lightly. "Whatever," she muttered, before walking back over to where the computer was set.

It was true, though. It wasn't like either me or Freddie would end up getting a role in the play, so why should we worry about it? And it wasn't like I wanted to get a role in it, anyway.

I just had no idea what awaited me back then.

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**Author's Note: Soooo, what did you think? =P**

**The play is the same one from the episode iSaw Him First (the one Carly supposedly wrote).**

**Now, do you know what you should do?**

**Yes, review! Please, it will make my day! =D**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**

**:D**


	2. Chapter 2: The Auditions

**Author's Note: Hello people of the world! =)**

**I'm really sorry that this chapter took me so long and that I had to keep you waiting! Please don't throw virtual rocks at me! I came in peace! ;P**

**Disclaimer: If I owned iCarly, do you really think I would be here on this website writing fanfiction? Yeah, you guessed right, I don't own iCarly! *sniff* :'(**

**And now, enjoy!**

**:D**

**EDITED CHAPTER - 08/22/12**

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Chapter 2: The Auditions

The final bell finally rang.

This would usually be the time I had been waiting for since the exact moment I had stepped into the school, but things were different today. Why, you ask? Because I couldn't leave this place just yet, since I would have to audition for that play before I was free to go home. Doesn't that sound amazing?

Please notice my sarcasm.

After putting our books inside our lockers, Carly and I began making our way to the auditorium, which was where the auditions would be taking place in just a matter of minutes. We met Freddie on the way to the auditorium, and when we finally got there, we caught sight of pretty much everyone we knew from Ridgeway and dozens of other people I had never talked to in my whole life, but whom I knew also studied at Ridgeway. Apparently, we were supposed to just wait outside the auditorium for something to happen, which was exactly what we did.

Since there was no more space available on any of the benches there were in the hallway - we really should have gotten there earlier - we decided to simply stand near the two big auditorium doors and wait. I couldn't tell how much time exactly had gone by like that, but I was sure it had been over twenty minutes, when the auditorium doors were suddenly pushed open and a short, skinny woman walked out of the auditorium holding a clipboard.

"All the girls, please come inside," the woman said, pausing by the doors.

All the girls began to walk inside the auditorium, and so did Carly and I. But just as we were about to enter the auditorium, I abruptly turned around.

"Hey, Freddork, aren't you coming?" I asked Frednub, a smirk playing on my lips. "She said _all _the girls."

The dork didn't respond, though. He only had the chance to roll his eyes at me, and before he could say anything, Carly and I stepped into the auditorium, instantly vanishing from sight. When we were inside, Carly shot me a somewhat reprehensive look, but I simply shrugged lightly at her with a grin on my face. Carly had never been a fan of our bickering, but I guessed she had gotten somewhat used to it over the past few years, which was probably the reason as to why she decided to simply shrug my little comment off instead of trying to lecture me about how I should at least try to be nice to the nub.

As we began making our way toward the last few rows of seats, which was where all the other girls seemed to be headed to, another woman, this one taller and with short red hair, walked up to us with a bright smile on her lips. I couldn't help but frown at the sight, since I had never seen that woman in my whole life, but it was only when she reached us that I realized that the smile was directed at Carly, not me.

"You're Carly Shay, right?" the woman asked, the smile never leaving her features.

"Yes," Carly replied hesitantly as she eyed the woman curiously. She obviously had just as much idea who that woman was as I did.

Problably noticing the clear confusions on our faces, the woman quickly introduced herself. "I'm the head of the school drama group," she told us.

"Oh, of course!" Carly exclaimed, and the confusion that had been present on her features until just two seconds ago was suddenly replaced with realization. "You're Mrs. Mythens, right?"

"Exactly," the woman replied, nodding lightly. "And as the author of the play, you won't be getting any role in it, since you'll be too busy with the production. Nevertheless, I really think you should have a part in the casting of the play."

"Really?" Carly asked, her eyes widening just slightly. "You want me to help choosing the cast?"

Mrs. Mythens nodded, smiling lightly at Carly's sudden enthusiasm. "That's what I just said," she said. "Now, if you'll follow me, we shall begin the auditions."

"Yeah, sure," Carly replied, but then seemed to finally remember that I was still standing right beside her. She seemed unsure of what to do for a moment, as if she really wanted to follow the woman, but at the same time, she didn't want to just abandon me there all by myself. I gave her a light nod of my head, telling her to go and not worry about me, and after a brief moment of hesitation, Carly and Mrs. Mythens walked away and began making their way toward the stage.

The woman who had called all the girls inside the auditorium gave each one of us another guide with the lines of the character we would be auditioning for, just in case any of us wanted to rehearse a bit more before the audition. Thanks to Carly, though, I didn't really need one of those. She had made me rehearse a few lines from that Mabel girl with her during every single second of free time we had had throughout the day. I really didn't want to do it, but she just wouldn't stop bugging me about it, so I ended up giving in. I had read and re-read all those lines so many times that I had already memorized all of them.

Wendy asked me to practice with her for a while, just until her name was called to audition, and we did so for a few minutes, until Mrs. Mythens's voice suddenly echoed through the whole auditorium.

"Wendy Redfield."

Wendy sent me a nervous glance, before making her way over to the stage. I watched her audition from the distance, but even from far away I could tell that she did pretty well, even though she was obviously insanely nervous. _She'll probably get the lead, _I thought to myself as I watched Wendy beginning to descend from the stage and make her way toward me.

I didn't even have the chance to ask her how she had done, though, since that Mythens woman then called the next name on the list.

"Samantha Puckett."

I felt anger boiling up inside of me when I heard that name, since I hated it when people called me Samantha. Ignoring that feeling, I lazily made my way over to the stage and came to a stop when I was standing right in the center of it.

On the right side of the stage, there was a rectangular table where Carly, Mrs. Mythens and that younger woman were all sat at, the three of them watching me closely.

I let my eyes meet Carly's for a moment, and she smiled encouragingly at me.

At the sight, I was reminded of just how much this whole play thing mattered to her, and I knew just how much she wanted me to at least make an effort in this. I sighed quietly to myself, coming to a decision. I would do this for her - what kind of friend would I be if I didn't? -, even though I knew this wouldn't get me anywhere. I was a hundred percent sure that I wouldn't get any role in the play, but Carly just didn't seem able to realize that. Well, at least when she reads the cast list and realizes that my name is not there, she won't be able to say that I didn't try.

"Samantha,-" Mrs. Mythens began, but I quickly cut her off.

"Sam," I corrected her, my tone hard.

"Sam," she said, nodding her head lightly at me. "Who will you be auditioning for?"

"Mabel," I replied simply.

Mrs. Mythens nodded lightly, writing something down on the notebook she had laid right in front of her on the table. "You can start now," she finally said.

And so I did.

I tried to remember everything Carly had told me - how to say this, how to say that - but honestly, I don't think I did that good. Well, it wasn't like I had actually acted anytime before - at least not on something that wasn't related to iCarly, which had all been comedy segments -, so I guess it was no surprise that I had pretty much no idea what I was doing. I knew almost all the lines by heart, but I had to eventually glance down at the paper with all my lines I was holding in my hand just to make sure that I was about to say the right thing or when I forgot what I was supposed to say.

During the whole audition, Mrs. Mythens kept writing a few notes down on her notebook, while the other woman and Carly simply watched me in silence.

When I was done, Mrs. Mythens was the first one to speak up.

"Thank you so much, Saman-" she began, but when she noticed me glaring at her, she quickly corrected herself. "Sam."

I simply nodded lightly at her and looked over to Carly, who sent me a small smile. I smiled back, before beginning to make my way off the stage and back to where I had been rehearsing with Wendy before the audition.

As I threw my backpack over my shoulder, I heard Mrs. Mythens calling the next name on the list.

"Rebecca Berkowitz."

I fished my cell phone out of my pocket and, after sending a quick glance over to the stage, only to realize that Rebecca was still walking toward it, I quickly send Carly a text.

**gonna go over 2 ur place. theres nothing 2 do here.**

From the distance, I saw Carly looking down at her phone, which had been lying on the table right in front of her. She quickly picked the mobile up and began typing, and after a few seconds, I felt my own phone buzzing in my hand.

**Okay. Do you want the key?**

I smile lightly at her reply, before typing down my own reply and hitting send.

**no need. c u l8r.**

And soon after that, I was making my way out of the auditorium, happy to finally be able to get out of that place. I really couldn't stand being in there any longer, and since Wendy had apparently already left and Carly was busy watching all the auditions, I would have no one to talk to if I stayed.

As I walked down the hallway that led to the main hall of the school, I spotted Freddie talking to one of his friend from the Nerd Club - I mean, AV Club. I don't think he saw me, though, but it wasn't like that made any difference.

And a few minutes later, I found myself picking the lock of Carly's apartment - as I've already said, I didn't need the key - and walking inside the empty Shays' apartment. And as soon as I was inside, I let my bag fall to the floor by the door and made my way over to the kitchen. I tried to occupy myself with an enormous ham sandwich and a few Girly Cow reruns, but I soon began to grow bored.

I sighed, turning the TV off and trying to find a more comfortable position on the couch as I wondered how long it would take for Carly to get here, and in no time at all, I slowly began to drift off to sleep.

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**Author's Note: Sooooo, what did you think? ****Please tell me in a review! =D**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**

**:D**


	3. Chapter 3: Secrecy

**Author's Note: Hello people of the world! =D**

**I'm really sorry, but I couldn't update any of my stories during the week! :(**

**By the way, I'm really happy because of all the amazing feedback I've been getting for this story! You guys are the best! :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly! I know, it's sad :(**

**And now, enjoy!**

**:D**

**EDITED CHAPTER - 09/08/12**

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Chapter 3: Secrecy

I woke up startled by a loud noise.

I sat up abruptly, looking around frantically in an effort to try to identify the source of the noise. I soon spotted Spencer lying on the floor by the stairs, and I couldn't help but frown at the sight. What the hell was he doing on the floor?

"Spencer, what are you doing?" I asked, eyeing him curiously.

"Oh, hey, Sam," Spencer said as he began to slowly get back to his feet. "I'm sorry I woke you up. I didn't mean to."

"What happened?" I asked, now truly worried. This just didn't seem good at all.

"Oh, I..." He paused for a moment to stretch his back a little. "I was coming downstairs to get something to eat, but I ended up tripping and falling down the stairs."

"Oh my god," I said, my eyes widening slightly with shock. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he told me, waving his hand in the air as if to tell me that it wasn't a big deal, even though it should be.

I decided to simply shrug it off, though, since Spencer didn't seem to have hurt himself when he fell. "Is Carly home yet?" I asked, wondering if she had gotten here while I was asleep and decided not to wake me up.

"No, but I think she will be soon," Spencer replied. "Well, now I'm gonna go take a shower. I gotta be over at Socko's in an hour."

And with that, Spencer vanished into his room, leaving me alone in the living room. I let myself fall back down onto the couch, letting out a sigh as I picked the TV remote up from the coffee table and turned the television on once again. There was nothing good on right now, though, which was exactly why I soon found myself simply blindly flipping through the channels. After a few minutes, I began to grow tired of that, and I was even beginning to consider standing up from the couch so I could go over to the kitchen to get something to eat when the front door of the Shays' apartment was suddenly pushed open and Carly and Freddie walked in.

"Hey, Sam," Carly greeted me as soon as she caught sight of me sitting on the couch.

"Finally, you're here!" I exclaimed. "What took you guys so long?"

"I had to stay for a little longer after the auditions to help Mrs. Mythens choosing the cast," Carly answered as she sat down next to me on the couch. "And Freddie said that he'd wait for me," she added.

_Of course he did,_ I thought to myself, doing my best not to roll my eyes at that. "So you two have already chosen the cast?" I asked.

"Yeah, we have," Carly replied, shrugging lightly.

"Hey, do you guys want something from the fridge?" Freddie's voice echoed through the living room, and it was just then that I realized that he had walked to the kitchen without a word while I talked to Carly.

"No, thanks," Carly replied.

"Bring me a Peppy Cola," I ordered, before turning my attention back to Carly. "So..." I began, hoping that she would take the hint.

"What?" Carly asked, abruptly looking down, as if trying to avoid my gaze.

I frowned at her weird behavior, but I decided to simply shrug it off for now. "What am I gonna have to do?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Carly asked, finally looking up and frowning at me.

I raised a questioning eyebrow at her. "I mean, what am I gonna have to do in the play?" I repeated my question.

"Oh," Carly said, as if she had just now understood what I wanted to know, but she didn't sound convincing at all. "Well, you see..." she began, but in that moment, Fredward walked in the living room holding a can of Peppy Cola in each hand. He gave me one of the cans, before pausing in front of the couch so he could join the conversation.

I quickly opened my can and took a long sip from it, before looking back up at Carly. "So?" I asked.

"So what?" she asked, and that was exactly when I knew that something was up. Carly had always been a terrible liar, which was exactly why it was so easy for me to tell that she was trying to avoid the subject of the play for some reason. I had no idea why she would want to do that, though.

"Okay, what's up with you?" I asked.

Carly frowned at me, but I could easily see a hint of nervousness in her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"You're acting all weird since I began asking you about the play," I told her. "It's like you're hiding something from me."

"What?" Carly laughed nervously. "I'm not acting weird," she said, turning to Freddie, as if seeking his support.

"Actually, you kind of are," Freddie said.

Carly glared at him for a moment, before turning her attention back to me. "Sam, I'm not hiding-" she began, but stopped abruptly when she noticed the look on my face, which clearly said 'I'm not buying it'. Carly sighed in defeat, finally giving in. "Fine," she said. "It's just that I swore to Ms. Mythens that I wouldn't tell _anyone _about _anything _ that we decided today, even the two of you."

"Then why didn't you just say so?" I asked.

Carly simply shrugged lightly in response.

"And when are we allowed to know the cast?" Freddie asked, before taking a sip of Peppy Cola from the can he was holding in his hand.

"Tomorrow," Carly replied. "They'll hang the cast list on the announcement board in the main hall."

I shrugged lightly at Carly's words. "Then I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow," I said, before taking another sip from my can of Peppy Cola as I leaned back into the couch.

Freddie sat down on the couch next to Carly, who then grabbed the TV remote I had laid on the coffee table just a few minutes earlier and began to flip through the channels, looking for something to watch. But even though the subject of the play cast seemed to be over for now, I was still intrigued by the way Carly was acting.

I could tell that what Carly had told us about promising Mrs. Mythens that she wouldn't say anything about the cast to the two of us was true, but I could also tell that there was something else to it. There was no reason for her to act so nervous if there wasn't.

I just had no idea what that might be.

* * *

**Author's Note: Soooooooooooo, what did you think? I'm sorry for the short chapter! It turned out a lot shorter than I thought it would be.**

**But anyway, what is Carly hiding from Sam and Freddie? Uhm...**

** You'll find out in the next chapter! ;D I'll try to update soon, since I don't want to keep you guys waiting for too long! =P**

**And now, review! Please! =D**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**

**:D**


	4. Chapter 4: The Cast

**Author's Note: Hello people of the world! =)**

**I'm sorry it took me so long, but the fourth chapter is finally here! ;D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly, or the characters of play, or their last names, or Nathan Kress (Yeah, I know, sad story... XP).**

**And now, enjoy!**

**:D**

**EDITED CHAPTER - 09/27/12**

* * *

Chapter 4: The Cast

As soon as I walked through the big double doors of Ridgeway High School, I caught sight of a relatively big crowd of people gathered right in front of the annoucement board.

I frowned for a moment, confused by the sight, until I suddenly realized what that was about.

Carly had told me and Freddie the night before that the play cast list would be on the announcement board by this morning, so that must be it.

Carly didn't bring up the subject of the play again the night before, just like I had expected her to. Her weird behavior had really intrigued me, since I was pretty sure that she was keeping something from me and Freddie, but I had decided to just let it go for the time being. Whatever it was that was making her act like that apparently had something to do with that play, so I was guessing that I'd know what that was by today, considering that was when they would announce the play cast and crew.

But seeing all those people blocking my way over to the annoucement board, I decided to check the list later. I just really didn't feel like having to push my way through that crowd.

As I made my way over to my locker, Wendy walked up to me, a bright smile on her face.

"Hey, Sam!" Wendy greeted me, still smiling. "Congratulations!"

I frowned at her words, since I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. "For what?" I asked.

Wendy seemed confused for a moment. "Didn't you see the cast list?" she asked.

"No..." I said, eyeing her suspiciously for a moment.

"Oh," she said, sounding slightly taken aback by my response. "I just..."

Wendy seemed to be at a loss for words, which made me grow extremely curious. I hesitated for a moment, trying to make some sense out of Wendy's weird behavior as I waited for some kind of explanation, but when I realized that she wouldn't say anything, I decided to just go see the reason for her hesitation with my own eyes.

"You know what? I'll be right back," I told Wendy, before turning around without even waiting for a reply and beginning to make my way toward the crowd of people.

There were several thoughts running through my head in that moment, but I simply tried to push them all away for now. Worrying about what was on that list before I actually saw it with my own eyes wouldn't do any good.

I somehow managed to make my way through the crowd, but I wasn't even a tiny bit gentle about it. Let's just say that my elbows were pretty busy for a few minutes, and that some people might wake up with a few bruises tomorrow.

And when I was finally able to see the cast list clearly, my eyes widened with shock, and I was frozen for a long moment, unable to do anything else apart from simply reading and re-reading the first name on the list.

**MABEL PIERCE - SAMANTHA PUCKETT**

I have no idea how much time I just stood there, simply staring at the list, as if by doing that my name would somehow disappear.

But the fact that I had actually been chosen as one of the leads wasn't the only reason why I suddenly felt the urge to rip that paper sheet off the board and rip it to pieces. The other reason was the second name on the list, which made my eyes grow even wider, if that was even possible.

**BRUNO FELL - FREDWARD BENSON**

It took me several seconds, maybe even a few minutes, but I somehow managed to make myself snap back to reality and begin to push my way out of the crowd, but this time, my mind was far away from there.

I just couldn't believe this. I had been sure that I wouldn't get any role in the cast, let alone one of the leads. If anyone had asked for my opinion yesterday, I would have told them that Wendy would surely be the one who would play Mabel. But apparently, Carly and that Mythens woman thought otherwise.

Carly.

Now I knew why Carly had been acting so weird yesterday. She had already been aware that both Freddie and I had been chosen as the leads, and she was probably afraid of what our reaction to the news would be.

For some reason, I felt extremely angry. Hadn't I made it clear just how much I didn't want to have any part in the play? I guess not, or maybe Carly just didn't care about that. And did she really have to choose Freddie as the other lead? I mean, I'm sure there were at least a dozen other boys in this school that would be perfect for the role, but Carly just had to choose Freddie, of all people.

With all those angered thoughts still in my mind, I began making my way over to my locker, and as I walked, I caught sight of Carly taking a few books from inside her bag and stuffing them inside her locker. I quickly approached her, before coming to a stop when I was standing right next to her.

It took Carly a few seconds to notice me. Only after closing the door of her locker shut and turning around did she catch sight of me, which caused her eyes to widen slightly for a moment as she let out a yelp.

"Sam!" Carly acknowledged me, and I could clearly hear a hint of nervousness in her voice. "What's up?"

I couldn't stop myself from raising an eyebrow at her. "Well, not much," I replied. "Just the fact that I was chosen as the lead of a play I didn't even want to be a part of."

Carly seemed to not have been sure if I had already seen the cast list before I spoke, and my words were just the confirmation she needed. I crossed my arms over my chest, my eyebrow still raised. It took Carly a few seconds to respond, though. She opened her mouth to speak more than twice, but she seemed unsure of what to say.

"I'm sorry," she finally said with a sigh. "I just..." Carly shook her head lightly, as if trying to clear up her thoughts.

"That's why you were acting so weird yesterday, isn't it?" I asked when I realized that Carly seemed to be at a loss for words. "You didn't want us to know about this beforehand."

Carly sighed. "Sam..." she began, but I didn't let her finish.

"You knew I didn't want any role in the play, but you chose me anyway," I continued, the volume of my voice raising slightly. "And don't tell me that you didn't have any say in it, because I know you did!"

"Sam, please..." Yet again, I didn't let her finish. I was just too pissed off to listen to anything she had to say to me at the moment.

"I mean, you could have at least-" This time, Carly was the one who interrupted me, not the other way around.

"Would you just hear me out for a second?!" Carly exclaimed, her voice a lot louder than before, which caught me completely off guard, making me fall silent for a moment. "Listen," she began in a much calmer tone of voice when she realized that I would finally let her speak. "I know you probably think that you didn't do well in your audition, but trust me, you were amazing! And so was Freddie!" Carly told me. "You guys are perfect for the roles!"

I didn't respond; I simply shook my head in disbelief at her words. She couldn't be serious.

After realizing that I wouldn't say anything, Carly spoke once again. "You're mad at me, aren't you?"

I hesitated for a brief moment before responding. "No," I said, shaking my head lightly. "I just wish you had asked me about it before choosing me."

"You would have told me that you didn't want it," Carly said, and I couldn't deny the truth behind her words.

"But still," I began. "It would have been good to know about it beforehand. This thing really caught me off guard."

"I'm sorry," Carly apologized once again.

I nodded lightly in response. "I gotta go," I said after a short, silent pause, before beginning to walk away without even waiting for Carly's reply. I know I told her that I wasn't mad at her, but I, for some reason, didn't feel like talking to her right now.

Before I could take more than two steps down the hallway, though, I caught sight of someone walking toward me and Carly; someone I really didn't want to talk to at the moment.

"Hey," Freddie greeted me.

"Don't 'hey' me," I told him harshly as I walked past him, not even bothering to register his reaction to my words, but I could easily tell that I had caught him off guard.

"What's up with her today?" I heard Freddie ask Carly before I was out of earshot, and I couldn't help but shake my head lightly at that.

He would find out soon enough.

* * *

**Author's Note: Soooo, what did you think? =P**

**So, Sam didn't take being chosen as one of the leads very well. I wonder how Freddie will react... Hehe ;D**

**And now... review! =D**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**

**:D**


	5. Chapter 5: The First Meeting

**Author's Note: Hello people of the world! =)**

**I'm really sorry for not updating any of my stories for a while, but I honestly didn't have time to do it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly or Nathan Kress, but I wish I did. Hehe ;D**

**And now, enjoy!**

**:D**

**EDITED CHAPTER - 10/28/12**

* * *

Chapter 5: The First Meeting

I was extremely thankful for the fact that Carly wasn't in my first class of the day, since I still didn't really feel like talking to her at the moment. Freddie was, though, but he was apparently late.

I still couldn't believe that I had actually been chosen to play Mabel. I mean, I was no professional actress. I knew that all the stuff I did for iCarly must count for something, but performing a segment on iCarly and performing on a play were two completely different things. Firstly, we didn't exactly follow the script on iCarly; we usually improvised a few parts of the segments. On the play, however, I wouldn't be allowed to do that, and the script would sure be a lot longer than the iCarly scripts were. And secondly, because everything we did on iCarly was for comedy, while the play was some kind of romantic drama, and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to pull that off very well.

Much to my confusion, my first class of the day began and there was no sign of Freddie anywhere, which was extremely odd, since Freddie was never late for anything, especially not for any of his classes. I didn't put much thought into it, though. I mean, what Freddie did was none of my business anyway.

It wasn't until almost halfway through the first class that there was a knock on the classroom door. Mr. Buttburn calmly walked to the door and pushed it open, and after exchanging a few words with whoever was standing just outside the classroom, he calmly stepped aside, allowing whoever he had been talking to inside the room.

Freddie then walked inside, before quickly making his way over to an empty seat on the other side of the classroom. As he sat down, he briefly scanned the room with his eyes, as if looking for someone, and as soon as his gaze found mine, he quickly looked away.

Okay, what was up with that boy?

During the whole class, Freddie didn't send any other glance in my direction, and for some reason, he seemed to be extremely nervous; I could tell by the way he kept nervously hitting his pen on his desk. I mean, not that I kept watching him because I was worried or anything; I was just bored out of my mind and had nothing better to do.

When the sound of the bell signaling the end of the first period finally echoed through the school hallways, I quickly shoved my things inside my backpack and began making my way toward the door, ready to leave that classroom. Freddie and I reached the door in the same second, and we ended up wordlessly walking side-by-side toward the main hall, which was where our lockers were. Several silent seconds went by, until I finally decided to speak.

"So," I began, looking down at the floor right in front of my moving feet. "What happened to you in the beginning of the class? Did you forget your anti-bacterial underwear and had to go back home to pick it up?"

It took Freddie a few seconds to respond to that. "I don't use anti-bacterial underwear anymore!" he told me, the volume of his voice dropping noticeably in an effort not to be heard by anyone around us, and for a moment, I wondered if it was actually true.

I decided it wasn't. "Of course you don't," I said with a hint of sarcasm in my voice.

Freddie didn't respond, and that was all the confirmation I needed. I couldn't help but chuckle lightly at that.

We both fell silent then, and the silence was only broken when Carly suddenly caught up to us, coming from one of the hallways we were walking by.

"Hey," she greeted us both, smiling. "Freddie, are you feeling better?"

"Uh..." Freddie sent a sideways glance in my direction as he hesitated to answer. I couldn't help but frown in confusion at that. "Yeah, uh... I'm fine," he finally said.

"What happened?" I found myself asking.

"Nothing," Freddie quickly replied, and it wasn't hard to notice the sudden nervousness in his voice.

"Oh, come on, Freddie!" Carly said, sighing. "She's gonna find out about it sooner or later."

"Find out about what?" I asked, now truly curious.

"Well, you see-" Carly began, but Freddie didn't let her finish.

"Oh, look!" Freddie exclaimed as he looked down at his watch. "We're all gonna be late for second period if we don't hurry."

"We still have seven more minutes until second period starts," Carly told him, rolling her eyes at him.

"I know, but still..." Freddie seemed to be trying to find something else to say, but apparently, he found none. "Fine, whatever," he said, giving in with a sigh. "Just tell her."

"Well," Carly began, turning her attention back to me. "When Freddie saw the cast list earlier today, he kind of..." She hesitated for a moment, sending a brief glance over at Freddie, who was looking down at his feet, as if avoiding my gaze. "He passed out."

I'm pretty sure even the people who were on the second floor of the school were able to hear me laugh. I was truly laughing hysterically, and I laughed for so long that soon my stomach began to ache, but that didn't make me laugh any lighter.

"Thank you so much, Carly," Freddie said, rolling his eyes at her, before turning on his heel and walking away from where we were, shaking his head lightly.

"Sam!" Carly exclaimed as soon as he was out of sight, her tone reprehensive.

"What?" I asked, still laughing lightly.

"You shouldn't have laughed at him like that!" Carly told me.

"Oh, come on! That was hilarious!" I said, picturing the scene of Freddie fainting in my mind, which only made me go straight back to laughing hysterically.

Carly shook her head in disbelief, rolling her eyes as she turned to her locker and began entering her combination.

* * *

I didn't see Freddie again that day. He seemed to be avoiding me, which was pretty understandable, since I was pretty sure that I'd burst out laughing the next time I saw him.

On the next day, though, he walked up to me and Carly before the first class of the day.

"Hey, Carls," he said, sending Carly a smile. His smile fell as soon as he laid his gaze upon me. "Sam."

"What's up, Fredward?" I asked. "Are you sure you're okay for class today or are you gonna faint again?"

Freddie didn't respond; he simply rolled his eyes at my comment.

"Sam, be nice," Carly told me, giving me a pointed look, and I simply shrugged at her in response.

After that, Freddie walked away, probably to go over to his locker, which left me and Carly standing alone by our own lockers. We chatted about nothing in particular for a while, until the subject of the play suddenly came up.

"So," Carly began as she took her Chemistry book out of her locker. "Are you ready for today's meeting?"

"What meeting?" I asked, frowning at her in confusion as I leaned against my locker.

Carly paused, eyeing me curiously. "The first play meeting," she told me. "It's today, right after class. Didn't I tell you about it?"

"Uh, no," I said, not even bothering to hide my annoyance. She just couldn't be serious. "So does this mean that I'll have to spend my afternoon here?"

"Uh, yeah, pretty much," Carly replied, shrugging lightly, as if it wasn't such a big deal. "And not only today. The meetings and rehearsals happen every Monday, Wednesday and Friday."

_You've gotta be kidding me, _I thought, now truly annoyed. So I'd have to waste three afternoons a week on this play? Seriously?

Probably realizing what was going through my head in that moment, Carly spoke up again. "But I'm gonna be there during every meeting and rehearsal. And anyway, I'm sure they won't be so bad. Maybe we'll even have some fun."

I knew Carly was just trying to cheer me up and make me feel better, but honestly, it wasn't working at all.

This whole play thing just seemed to get worse every day that passed.

* * *

When the final bell rang, I made my way over to my locker, where I was supposed to meet Carly and the dork so we could go to the school auditorium together, since that was where all the meetings and rehearsals for the play would take place. As we walked, I noticed that even though Freddie seemed to have stopped avoiding me, he was still trying not to make eye contact with me. I couldn't help but chuckle lightly at that.

When we walked inside the auditorium, I looked around, taking in everyone who was in there. I hadn't read the whole cast and crew list, so I had no idea who I'd have to put up with for the next few months. I caught sight of Wendy, Gibby, Reuben and a bunch of other people talking, many of which I didn't even know.

Carly, Freddie and I sat down on the fourth roll of seats near the stage, since that was what pretty much everyone was doing. Several people arrived at the auditorium after us, and we all simply sat there for some time, waiting for something to happen.

And after what I guessed had been over fifteen minutes, Mrs. Mythens and her little assistant walked inside the auditorium, the first one with an incredibly bright smile on her face. She quickly made her way over to the stage, and when she got there, she turned to us, simply eyeing us all for a moment.

"Welcome, welcome," she greeted us after a few seconds, still smiling. "It's a pleasure to be here today with all of you, and I hope you all feel the same." She made a short pause as she ran her eyes over us, as if trying to read our expressions, and the fact that her eyes were focused on me for a few seconds longer than they were on everyone else didn't go unnoticed by me."Well, as you all may know already, we'll be performing a play in a little over ten months, which might seem like a long time, but trust me, it's not. I'm not gonna tell you all that this is going to be easy, but with my help and some dedication from your part, I'm sure everything will work out perfectly." Mrs. Mythens then glanced over to her side, where her assistant was standing, carrying a huge pile of papers. Mrs. Mythens nodded lightly at her, and the petite woman then began walking around the auditorium, giving out a small pile of paper to a few people. "Olivia will give each member of the cast a copy of the script," the Mythens woman explained, gesturing to the young woman. "Since this is our first meeting, we won't actually rehearsal any scene. Today, I'll explain to you how everything will go during the rehearsals, so feel free to ask questions if you have any doubts."

Mrs. Mythens then began talking about everything we would do during the next few months. A little after she began to speak, Olivia walked over to me and gave me a copy of the script, which had my name printed on the cover. I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows in disbelief when I found myself holding the script in my hands. _This thing must be over two hundred pages long! _I thought to myself, shaking my head lightly. Did that woman really expect me to read the whole thing?

Mrs. Mythens's speech seemed like it would never end. That woman just refused to stop talking. Whenever I thought that she was finally done talking, she would bring another subject up, which was usually even longer than the previous one. She talked about absolutely everything - the script, the story, the schedule, the outfits; it was an endless list. I was so bored that I was sure I would fall asleep if I had the chance to, but Carly just wouldn't let me even take a quick nap - she would elbow me every single time she noticed that I was about to fall asleep.

And after what had seemed like an eternity had passed, the meeting was finally over. Mrs. Mythens thanked us all for our attention and dismissed us, telling us that it would be very helpful if we read the whole script at home - I couldn't help but roll my eyes at that - and that she couldn't wait to see us all on Monday.

As we all left the auditorium, Carly just wouldn't stop talking about how amazing this whole thing was, and how much fun it would be. As she spoke, I sneaked a few glances over at Freddie, only to realize that he didn't look very thrilled about this whole play thing either.

Well, I guess I'd just have to get used to this whole thing. I mean, there wasn't anything I could do to get away from this, so I might as well get used to it. And maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.

I just had no idea what I was getting myself into back then.

* * *

**Author's Note: Soooo, what did you think? =)**

**I'd like to say a special thanks to Crazii-fan4all for giving me the brilliant idea of making Freddie pass out. My first idea was him having a panic attack or something, but I thought it would be a lot funnier if he passed out. I wasn't sure if I should do it or not, but my friends thought it would be a good idea, so there you have it! ;P**

**Oh, one more thing. Would you guys be bored if I wrote the whole play here? Just asking, because I don't know if I should write the whole play (which I've already thought about), or if I should just**** write**** the most important parts. It's up to you! =)**

**And now, review! ;D**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**

**:D**


	6. Chapter 6: The Script

**Author's Note: Hello people of the world! (Why do I always say that? XP)**

**Thank you so much for everyone who reviewed and/or added this story to favorites and/or added it to alerts! You guys are the best! =)**

**And a special thanks to SingerforChanny for your review! :D**

**By the way, this story is set a while after iThink They Kissed, which means that Carly already knows about the Seddie kiss from iKiss! Why am I saying this, you ask? Well, you'll find out soon enough ;)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly! :(**

**And now, enjoy!**

**:D**

**EDITED CHAPTER - 11/10/12**

* * *

Chapter 6: The Script

After the play meeting, we all went over to Carly's, since it was Friday night, which meant that we had a web show to do. We arrived at the Shays' apartment about two hours before we started broadcasting, which wasn't that much time, but we somehow managed to get everything ready for the show in the little time we had.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened that weekend. We did iCarly on Friday, had a creative meeting on Saturday and I spent the night over at Carly's from Saturday to Sunday. I decided to go home on Sunday evening, though, which wasn't exactly a rare thing for me to do. But just like almost every day I was home, there wasn't much for me to do. I fed Frothy, took a shower and ended up spending the rest of the night watching videos online, which got boring in no time at all.

I sighed as I made my computer chair spin around just slightly, eyeing my bedroom hopefully, as if by doing that I'd find something to do in the middle of the mess that was my room, which I was a hundred percent sure wouldn't happen.

Much to my surprise, though, I ended up actually finding something to do.

My backpack was lying on the floor by the door, which was exactly where I had tossed it when I got home on Friday evening. It was unzipped, which allowed me to see a small pile of papers inside of it, and I instantly knew what that pile was.

The play script.

_Not a chance,_ I quickly thought to myself, shaking my head and chuckling lightly at just how ridiculous the idea that had just crossed my mind had sounded. _I mean, there must be something better to do around here. _I resumed looking for something to do, but much to my annoyance, I came up with nothing, and soon, I found myself glancing repeatedly over at where my bag was. _Ah, what the hell, _I thought to myself after a few minutes of pointlessly wandering around my room, finally giving in._  
_

I lazily made my way over to where my bag was lying on the floor and kneeled down right next to it, before fishing the script out of it. I then let myself fall down onto my bed, trying to find a comfortable position, because maybe that way I'd end up falling asleep and would be free from all this boredom.

When I was somewhat content with the way I was lying on the bed, I opened up the script, but after reading the first few lines of it, I ended up deciding to just flip straight to the last page and see how the play ended. I guess I just wanted to know if my character would die or something, which would be a pretty good ending, even though I knew that was probably not the type of ending Carly would have written. But a girl can dream, right?

When I finally got to the last page of the script, I began reading the ending of the last scene, but after just a few words, my eyes widened in shock, and I ended up quickly letting go of the script, as if it was a piece of hot iron that might burn my hand, letting it fall on the bed right in front of me.

_You've gotta be kidding me, _I thought, shaking my head vigorously, as if by doing that I'd be able to change what I had just read, even though I knew that wouldn't happen.

I don't know how long I stayed there, frozen, simply staring at the script with wide eyes as I tried to process what was written on that page, but I was sure it had been over ten minutes. Finally, when I seemed to have regained control over my own body, I somehow made myself pick the script up from the bed and, with slightly shaky hands, I opened it back on the last page.

I re-read the last scene, hoping that I had somehow read a few words wrong, but no matter how much I wanted the ending to be different from the one right in front of my eyes, I knew there was nothing I could do to change what would happen in the scene.

A kiss.

* * *

I marched through the doors of Ridgeway High School, determination suddenly taking over me. My eyes were stinging and my eyelids felt unusually heavy due to my lack of sleep from last night, but I somehow made myself keep walking.

After reading the last scene of the play for the first time, it had taken me several minutes to actually process what all that really meant. I was so shocked that I wasn't even able to move for a while, and I had suddenly found myself unable to do anything apart from simply glaring at the script, as if I'd be able to set it on fire by simply looking at it. I guess I just refused to accept the fact that I'd have to kiss Freddie on stage, which was pretty understandable if you think about it.

The only time I had ever kissed him had been over a year ago, and that had only happened because we both wanted to get that whole first kiss thing over with. There had been no feelings to it, and when it was over, things went straight back to how they had previously been, which was exactly what we had promised to each other would happen. I had never thought I'd ever have to kiss Freddie again, let alone in a play.

When the shock finally seemed to have worn off, I decided to read the whole script just to make sure that there wasn't any other kiss in it. I knew that didn't sound like something I would do, but desperate times asked for despetate measures.

Much to my relief, the kiss in the last scene was the only one, but that didn't make me feel much better. And to make things even worse, reading the script took several hours, and when I was done with it, the alarm that woke me up every day to go to school went off. I indeed felt relieved to know that I wouldn't have to kiss Freddie more than once, but that knowlegde didn't exactly make up for the sleepless night.

I had decided against skipping school that day for two reasons. One, I felt like I really needed to talk to Carly about this, since she was the one who had written the play in the first place. And two, because I didn't exactly feel tired before leaving for school.

Now that I was here at Ridgeway, though, and that my body seemed to have realized that sleep wasn't coming any time soon, I suddenly felt as if my body would just shut off at any second. My eyelids were unbelievably heavy and my thoughts were somewhat foggy, but I somehow managed to drag myself through the main hall and make my way over to my locker, and when I finally got there, I instantly caught sight of Carly.

She was busy with something inside her locker, but I wasn't feeling very patient at that moment to wait for her to be done with whatever she was doing.

"Why?" I asked as soon as I reached her, and Carly instantly leaned back and away from her locker.

Carly frowned at me, clearly surprised and confused by my question. "What are you talking about?"

I rolled my eyes impatiently, even though she actually had a very good reason to be confused. It wasn't like she could read minds, so I guess I shouldn't have expected her to understand what I meant right away. "Why did you have to write that kiss in the last scene?" I repeated my question, now giving Carly enough information for her to know exactly what I was talking about.

"Oh..." Carly said, suddenly undertanding where my apparently random question had come from. "Wait, you actually read the script?" she asked, suddenly frowning at me once again.

"That's not the point!" I replied, annoyed that she wasn't focusing on the actual matter at hand. "Was that kiss really neccessary?"

"Yes!" Carly replied, sounding as if the answer was absolutely obvious. "What was I supposed to write in the last scene if not a kiss?"

"Geez, I don't know," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "I would personally prefer a dramatic ending, with Mabel killing Bruno or something."

Carly didn't even bother to try hide her shock at my words. "Why would Mabel kill Bruno?"

"It would be a much better ending," I told her, shrugging lightly.

"No, it wouldn't!" Carly told me, annoyed. "And anyway, I don't see why you kissing Freddie in the play is such a big deal," she continued, shrugging lightly. She paused for a moment as she looked around briefly, as if checking if there was anyone close enough to overhear our conversation, and when she spoke again, her voice was so low there was no doubt only I could hear what she was saying. "I mean, it's not like you haven't already kissed before."

I simply stood there for a moment, my eyes wide with shock. I couldn't believe she had just said that. She honestly caught me completely off guard, and I found myself unable to respond to that for a few seconds. When I finally opened my mouth to speak after somewhat recovering from the shock caused by her words, though, someone interrupted me.

"Hola, amigas," Freddie greeted us both with a smile on the corner of his lips.

"Hey, Freddie," Carly greeted him hesitantly as she sent a nervous glance in my direction. It was like she was afraid that he would say something about the kiss as well, but I somehow could tell that Freddie still wasn't aware of the kiss. If he was, he surely wouldn't look so calm around me, considering that he had actually passed out when he found out that we'd have to play a couple. Unless...

And that was when I realized that maybe Freddie had indeed been aware of the fact that if we were the leads, then we'd have to kiss in the end of the play, that being the reason why he even passed out and was so freaked out when he read the cast list in the first place. I guess that made his passing out a tiny bit more understandable, but the scene of him fainting was still too hilarious not to be laughed at.

I didn't greet Freddie back. Instead, I decided to try to occupy myself with opening my locker and pretending to look for something inside of it. I just couldn't stop myself from sending a few inconspicuous glances toward him, though, and every single time I did that, the only thing that came to my mind was the fact that in just a few rehearsals, maybe even in the next one, I'd kiss him again. That thought gave me a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach that somewhat resembled nervousness, but I couldn't entirely define what it was exactly. I just knew that whatever it was, I didn't like it.

No matter how much I tried to push any thoughts related to the kiss away, that subject was still the only thing I could think about, and soon, a memory slipped into my mind; one that had become a lot more frequent than I was comfortable with during this past week.

Even though I didn't want to admit it, Carly did have a point. I had indeed already kissed Freddie once, but since that night out in the fire escape, I had been trying to avoid any kind of thought related to what had happened there. But now, how could I not think about it when Freddie was standing right in front of me and the knowledge that I'd be kissing him again soon simply refusing to leave my mind for even a whole minute?

I closed the door of my locker shut with little more strength than I had intended to, and the loud sound of the metal door closing shut echoed through the hallway, which made me earn several curious and confused glances from a few girls who happened to be walking by us in that very moment. Carly and Freddie jumped at the sound, before looking at me confusedly, wordlessly asking me what that had been about.

I ignored them, though. "I... I gotta go," I simply told them, before walking past them and away from there without a single glance behind. There was no need for me to look back to know that Carly and Freddie were watching me walk away with a confused expression on their faces - that was pretty much obvious - but in that moment, I didn't really care about that.

I just needed some time alone.

* * *

**Author's Note: Soooo, what did you think? =)**

**Sam doesn't seem really happy about the kiss, does she? I wonder if Freddie already knows about it... ****Hehe ;P**

**I love reviews ;)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**

**:D**


	7. Chapter 7: Bad Day

**Author's Note: Hello people of the world! =)**

**I know I haven't updated any story in a while, but my laptop had been acting up =/**

**But anyway, here I am! =P**

**So, this chapter isn't exactly necessary, but it's not a filler either. So... yeah XD **

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly!**

**And now, enjoy!**

**:D**

**EDITED CHAPTER - 12/11/12**

* * *

Chapter 7: Bad Day

I went straight to the classroom where I'd have my first class of the day after talking to Carly and Freddie. I knew that didn't sound like something I'd do at all, but that was actually the point of it. A classroom was the last place anyone would think of if they wanted to look for me.

When I entered the classroom, I immediately began making my way to the back of it, intending to sleep a little during the class. If the fact that I could barely keep my eyes open or walk normally told me something, it was that some sleep, even if just a little bit of it, would already make me feel a lot better than I was feeling at the moment. At least it would make me not feel like I would simply pass out at any second.

I let myself fall onto the chair and rested my bag on my desk, before adjusting it in a way it was a somewhat comfortable pillow. And without another thought, I placed both my arms on it, before resting my head on them.

I don't even remember closing my eyes; all I know is that in one moment, I had just adjusted myself for a few minutes of sleep, and in the other, Howard's voice suddenly woke me up.

"Ms. Puckett!"

My eyes shot open instantly and I quickly sat up, startled by the sudden sound. I looked around, trying to find the source of the sound, and it didn't take me longer than a second to realize that Mr. Howard was standing right beside my desk, eyeing me with a clear hint of annoyance in his eyes.

"What do you want?" I asked, not even bothering to disguise just how annoyed I was that he had interrupted my sleep.

"Ms. Puckett," Howard began, ignoring my rude reply. "I believe you're aware of the fact that sleeping in class is a direct violation of the school rules."

I raised a defiant eyebrow at him as I crossed my arms over my chest, now more awake than before. "Your point being?"

Howard glared at me for a second before responding. "If I were you, I wouldn't as much as close my eyes for longer than five seconds in this class."

I couldn't help but snort lightly at that and roll my eyes. My brain was still a litte foggy, so I guess that was why I ended up acting completely on instinct and ignoring that fact that I would probably get more than one detention for this, which was something I had been trying to avoid doing for the past couple of weeks. "What are you gonna do? Send me to the principal's office?"

"Precisely," Howard said, sounding as if he really thought that was a treat, when it was actually pretty amusing.

I chuckled. "Like _that's_ gonna keep me from sleeping," I shot at him.

Howard's expression hardened at my words. "Why don't you go tell Principal Fraklin himself that, then?" he asked, glaring at me once more. "To the principal's office, Puckett!"

I rolled my eyes at him as I stood up and grabbed my backpack, before leaving the classroom without a single glance behind.

Ted's secretary sent me right in when I got to the principal's office, not even bothering to ask me why I was there. I guess I could thank the several visits I had paid to this office throughout the past few years for that. According to her, 'Principal Franklin would be back in a just few minutes', so all I'd have to do was wait inside his office for him to come back and talk to me.

Inside the office, I let myself fall onto the chair I had become so familiar with and dropped my bag by my side. I simply sat there for a moment, but in no time at all, sleep began to threaten to take over me again. As I walked here, I had felt a little more awake, but now that I had sat down, I began feeling just as sleepy as I had felt in Howard's classroom. I must have fallen asleep while sitting on the chair, because I almost jumped two feet in the air when the office door was pushed open and Ted walked inside, feeling as if barely a second had gone by, when in fact I had been waiting for almost fifteen minutes. At least that was what the clock hanging on the wall right behind Ted's desk told me, anyway.

"Good morning, Sam," Ted greeted me as he rounded his desk and took his usual seat across from me.

"Hey, Ted," I greeted him back in a tired voice.

"Sam," he said, giving me a pointed look.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at that. "Principal Franklin," I said, even though I really didn't see the point of him insisting that I couldn't call him Ted.

"So," he began, resting his arms on the desk and joining his hands right in front of him . "What did you do this time, Sam?"

I couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that he sounded as if he asked me that question every day, which was kind of true anyway. "I fell asleep in Howard's class," I told him, shrugging lightly.

"And?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at me, since he knew that wasn't enough for me to get sent here.

"And I kind of 'questioned his authority', as he might say it," I explained, using a term Howard never seemed to get tired of.

"Sam, you have to stop doing that," Ted told me, his tone almost parental. "You can't keep doing things like that and not expect the punishments to get worse with time."

"I know," I replied, rolling my eyes. "I'm just not feeling really well today."

"Is that why you fell asleep during Howard's class?" Ted asked me, eyeing me curiously.

I nodded lightly in response. "I didn't have a minute of sleep last night," I told him.

"I'm assuming that's why you look like you're about to pass out at any second," he said, smiling lightly at me, and I simply shrugged in response. "Listen, Sam, why don't you go home and rest for today?"

"What?" I asked, my eyes widening slightly in surprise. "Aren't you gonna give me detention or at least yell at me?"

Ted shook his head lightly at me. "That wouldn't do you any good, considering the state you're in," he told me in a calm tone. "I'll just let you go with a warning this time, but I'm hoping not to see you sitting on this chair again so soon."

"Thank you, Ted," I said, but then corrected myself when I saw the look he gave me. "Principal Franklin."

And with that, I got to my feet, grabbed my backpack and left his office, going straight to the nearest exit.

I felt extremely glad that Carly lived just a few blocks away from Ridgeway, because if she didn't, I would probably have ended up having to get some sleep in the janitor's closet. Much to my relief, though, I managed to get to Bushwell Plaza without passing out on the way, and when I finally got to the Shays' apartment, I didn't hesitate for a even a second before letting myself fall onto the couch. I would have gone up to the second floor to sleep in Carly's room, where I'd be a lot more comfortable, but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to climb up those stairs, so I decided it would be better to just stay in the living room and sleep on the couch for a few hours.

And in no time at all, darkness took over me, pulling me into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Ham.

That was the first word that popped into my head when I woke up. The moment the sweet scent of ham reached my nostrils, my eyes popped open and I instantly sat up, looking for the source of that delicious smell.

"Well, look who's awake!" Carly's voice made me turn my head abruptly, only to spot my best friend standing in the kitchen, watching me with a slightly amused expression on her face.

"Hey, Carls," I greeted her as I lazily got to my feet. "How long have you been home?"

"Oh, I just got here," she replied, shrugging lightly. "I was worried because you had vanished from school and wouldn't answer your phone, but when I got here a few minutes ago, I found you sleeping on the couch." She made a short pause. "Did you spend your whole morning here?"

"Yeah, pretty much," I told her, shrugging lightly as I slowly made my way up to where she was. She had probably been making herself a ham sandwich before I woke up, because there were several ingredients spread all over the kitchen island, including ham. "Principal Franklin sent me home during first period, so I came here instead."

"But why would he do that?" Carly asked me, eyeing me with a hint of amusement in her eyes as I quickly grabbed the plate full of ham from the island and began devouring its content. What else could I do? Sleeping for long periods of time always made me hungry.

"Because he could tell that I wasn't feeling well," I said, shrugging lightly as I chewed my ham.

"Oh..." Carly said, sounding as if she suddenly felt bad, and I could easily tell why. She probably hadn't been able to tell that much when we talked earlier today. "But are you okay now?"

"Yeah, much better," I replied simply. It was true; sleeping for about six hours on that couch had made me feel almost as good as new.

We were both silent for a moment, and awkwardness soon took over the air around us. We were both very much aware of the fact that the other was thinking about the argument we had had earlier, and we both obviously wanted to say something, but neither one of us wanted to be the first one to speak. I remained eating my ham, waiting for Carly to say something, while she pretended to be busy with her sandwich.

"So..." Carly finally broke the silence after what I guessed had been over three minutes. "Are we good now?" Her voice was almost shy, and when my gaze met hers, it was like I could actually see it in her eyes that she was afraid of what my answer to that would be.

The truth was that I just couldn't make myself be mad at Carly for too long. Sure, she had pissed me off by choosing me to be one of the leads while _knowing_ that Freddie and I would have to kiss, but she was one of those people you just couldn't bear to be angry at for longer than a day.

I sighed in defeat. "Yeah, we're good," I said.

She flashed me a relieved smile, but I quickly went on before she could get _too_ happy.

"But," I began, and her smile instantly fell a little. "There's something I want to know."

"Okay," she replied, clearly hesitant.

"Why did you choose me and Freddie to be the leads if you knew that we'd have to kiss in the end of the play?"

Carly hesitated for a moment before answering, as if trying to find the best way to say whatever she wanted to say. "Well," she finally began. "You two were honestly the best ones for the roles. I mean, you should have seen your auditions!" Carly told me, and it was clear in her voice that she was still somewhat fearful of what my reaction to her words would be. "And even though I knew that you two would probably get mad at me when you found out about it, neither me nor Mrs. Mythens could choose anyone else."

I was silent for a moment, digesting her words. "Does Freddie know?" I finally asked the question that had been lurking inside my mind since last night. "About the kiss, I mean."

Carly nodded lightly in response. "Yeah," she told me in a somewhat hesitant tone. "He knew about it even before he knew you two were the leads. That's why he passed out when he read the cast list."

I nodded lightly, but remained quiet. I guess there was no reason for me to blame Carly for all this, but I honestly just needed someone to be mad at. I sighed, and just then I realized that the few hours of sleep I had gotten this afternoon hadn't been quite enough.

I yawned as I set the now empty plate I had been holding back down onto the kitchen island. "You know," I began, looking back up at Carly. "I'm still not feeling very well. I guess I'll just go home and rest." I made a short pause. "Would you be mad if I ditched the iCarly rehearsal today?"

"No, of course not," Carly quickly told me, shaking her head lightly. "You clearly need to rest."

I simply nodded in response, before turning around and walking over to the coffee table, next to which I had dropped my backpack when I got here this morning. I quickly threw my bag over my shoulder and began making my way over to the Shays' front door.

"Don't you want to spend the night?" I heard Carly asking me from the kitchen, her voice somewhat hopeful.

"Nah, I'd better go home tonight," I told her after a brief moment of hesitation. Her offer was pretty appealing, but I really just wanted to go home and be alone for tonight. "I'll see you tomorrow," I added as I opened the door.

"See ya," Carly replied as I closed the door shut behind me.

The walk home was a lot harder than I had thought it would be. The drowsiness soon caught up to me again, and in no time at all I began to actually think that I wouldn't make it home before I passed out in some alley and spent the night there.

Much to my relief, though, after what had seemed like a true eternity, I finally found myself climbing up the staircase that led to the second floor of my house, going straight to my bedroom. As soon as I entered my room, I let myself fall onto the bed, and before I could even form any kind of coherent thought about everything that had happened today, darkness took over me.

* * *

**Author's Note: So, what did you think? =)**

**Hey, look at that pretty green button right over there! Why don't you click on it to see what happens? I heard that it opens up a pretty amazing window where you can write your opinion about this chapter! Why don't you give it a try? :P**

**Oh, and Merry Christmas! (I know, I'm a little late, but it was all my laptop's fault! XP) And a Happy New Year to everybody! =D**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**

**:D**


	8. Chapter 8: The First Rehearsal

**Author's Note: Hello people of the world! =D (Why do I always say that? XD)**

**Well, here's chapter eight of A Chance For Romance! =) This one is a little longer than the others, and I stayed up until 2AM in the morning just to write it for you guys! Doesn't that make you feel special? ;P**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly! *sniff* :(**

**And now, enjoy the results of a relatively big amount of coffee that made me stay up so late to write this for you! XD**

**:D**

**EDIT (12/30/12): This is the last rewritten chapter. From the next chapter on, the chapters will only be edited, not rewritten, and they will still have a note like this one. Thank you for your patience. ;)**

* * *

Chapter 8: The First Rehearsal

The first thought that slipped into my mind the moment I opened my eyes two days later was that I'd have to sit through the first rehearsal of that play later that same day.

Great.

I didn't even bother to check what time it was as I dragged myself out of bed and made my way to my bathroom, where I quickly got ready for school. Downstairs, I cooked myself some bacon for breakfast, along with a few pancakes, and when my stomach finally decided to stop trying to communicate with the world around me, I grabbed my backpack and left my house, beginning the apparently endless walk to school. It would be pretty amazing if someday my mother would kindly decide to give me a ride to school, but it was pretty much impossible to make her get out of bed before noon, so I just never bothered to even ask her.

When I got to school, I was surprised to see that there was practically no one in sight. I frowned, ignoring that unusual little fact for a moment as I calmly made my way over to my locker. At first I thought that I was just really late and that the first class of the day had already started, but I soon found out otherwise. After getting a few things out of my backpack and putting them inside my locker, renewing the food stock I kept there, I finally managed to find my phone inside the mess that was my bag. And when I checked the time on it, my eyes widened in shock.

I wasn't too late for first period. I was forty minutes _early._

That had never happened before in my life. I mean, Sam Puckett was never early for _anything._ Well, I guess the fact that I had slept several hours during the afternoon the previous day made me wake up a little earlier than usual this morning, but still, I'd never been early to anything in my life, especially not to school.

I wasn't planning on spending the next forty minutes there in that hallway all by myself, though, so I quickly closed the door of my locker shut and was about to begin making my way toward the nearest exit, when Ted suddenly came into view in the end of the hallway.

"Hello, Sam," Ted greeted me, eyeing me with clear confusion in his eyes.

"Hey, Ted," I replied simply.

"Sam," he said, his voice earning a somewhat reprehensive tone.

"Hello, Principal Franklin," I corrected myself. I found it pretty funny how he still insisted on telling me that I couldn't call him Ted, even though he knew that I would keep doing it anyway, no matter how many times he corrected me.

"You're early," he said after briefly looking down at his watch. "What happened?"

"Honestly, I don't even know. I guess I shouldn't have slept through the whole afternoon yesterday," I admitted, shrugging lightly. "It made me wake up earlier than usual today."

"But you're better now, aren't you?" Ted asked me.

"Way better," I replied simply.

"Well, that's very good to hear," he told me with a warm smile. "Now if you'll excuse me, there's someone waiting for me in my office."

And with that, he turned around and left, walking down the hallway in a slightly hurried pace.

I stood there for a moment, simply staring at the spot where Ted had vanished as I tried to decide what to do. I mean, it wasn't like there was much to do there in that deserted hallway, where there were about three losers I had never even seen before in my life. I sighed as I dropped my phone back inside my bag, and that was when I caught sight of something that gave me an idea of something to do.

The play script.

I suddenly realized that Mrs. Mythens must probably arrive pretty early at school, since she wasn't simply the head of the drama club; she was also an English teacher for some lower grade.

Keeping that thought in mind, I quickly began making my way down the hallway, hoping that I would be lucky enough for my assumptions to be right.

Fortunately, when I got to the school auditorium, I found Mrs. Mythens talking to two boys I recognized from the play meeting we had had earlier that same week. They seemed to be discussing something about lighting or whatever, but it wasn't like I cared enough to pay attention.

"But are you sure that's going to work?" Mrs. Mythens asked the shorter one of the boys, her voice leaving it clear just how dubious she was about whatever the two boys were telling her. "I mean, we can't take any kind of risks..." As she spoke, the woman looked up and caught sight of me entering the auditorium. "Just a minute, boys," she told them, before she began making her way up to where I was standing.

"Sam!" she greeted me, smiling brightly. "What a wonderful surprise!" I did my best not to roll my eyes at her obvious excitement. "What brings you here so early?"

"Well," I began, choosing my words carefully, as if the right word choice would make her agree to do what I was about to ask. "I was hoping I could talk to you about something," I found myself saying.

"Let's talk, then," she said, calmly making her way toward one of the seats right beside us and sitting down on one of them. She gestured for me to join her, but I preferred to just stay where I was.

"It's more like a request, actually," I began, but then paused for a moment. I took a deep breath, and then finally spoke up again. "I need you to take the kiss out of the play."

Mrs. Mythens eyed me curiously for a moment, but I could somehow tell that she wasn't surprised at all by my request, which made me think that she had already been expecting me to do this sooner or later. "And why would I do that?" she asked me, crossing her legs, as if trying to get more comfortable to hear what I was about to say.

"Why?" I asked, sounding as if the answer to that question was the most obvious thing in the world. "Isn't it at least a tiny bit obvious?"

Mrs. Mythens laughed lightly, briefly looking down, as if amused by what I had just said. "I can't say I wasn't expecting either you or Freddie to come talk to me about the kiss, but my bets had been on Freddie if you asked me who would be the first one to do it," she told me when she looked back up at me, her voice unusually calm.

I simply raised my eyebrows at that, slightly surprised by the woman's response. I surely hadn't been expecting to hear anything like that.

Probably realizing that I wouldn't say anything, Mrs. Mythens went on. "However, my answer might not please you," she continued, her tone just as calm as before. She made a short pause, during which she did nothing but stare at me in silence. I simply stared right back, doing my best not to glare at her, since I had a pretty good idea of what she would say to me next. "Listen, Sam," she said, finally breaking the silence after several silent seconds. "I know that you and Freddie have some kind of... complicated relationship." I couldn't help but roll my eyes at that. _You don't say, _I thought to myself, but remained quiet. "But you two can't let that get in the way of things like this."

"I'm not-" I began, but the lady didn't let me finish.

"Yes, you are," she told me in that exact calm tone from before. If she wasn't a teacher, I would have probably punched her in the face for interrupting me like that, but since that would probably get me a triple detention - or maybe even an expulsion - I remained where I was. "If any other boy played Bruno on the play, would you have this same reaction? Or is it just because it's Freddie?"

I looked down, unable to deny the truth in her words. Yes, the problem was that I'd have to kiss _Freddie _ of all people, but hadn't that been clear since the beginning of the conversation?

"This is a play, Sam," Mrs. Mythens continued. "And in this kind of business, we often have to do things we don't actually feel comfortable with doing." She made a short pause, and even though I wasn't looking directly at her, I could easily feel her eyes on my face, studying my reaction to her words. "Now, about your little request," she went on after a moment, standing up from her seat. "I'm afraid my answer is no." I finally made myself meet her gaze again, and I was surprised by the determination I saw in her eyes. "The kiss is a fundamental part of the play, and there's no way we'd be able to cut it out."

There was silent pause, during which we simply stared at each other. I wanted to come up with something to say; some kind of smart reply that would somehow make her change her mind. I had always been the master of convincing people to do whatever I wanted, so this shouldn't be too hard, but for some reason, my mind came up blank. The woman did have pretty good arguments, and somehow I knew that no matter how long I stayed there trying to talk her into cutting the kiss out of the play, I wouldn't succeed. I wouldn't be able to change her mind, no matter what I said.

Mrs. Mythens took in a deep breath. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I have work to get back to," she announced. "I guess I'll see you later today?"

"We'll see," I replied in the coldest tone I could muster at the moment, before spinning on my heel. I didn't even look back to register the woman's reaction to my words as I marched up to the auditorium exit and walked out of it and into the hallway.

* * *

"Do I really need to go?" I whined for what I guessed was the tenth time in the last two minutes as my best friend practically dragged me by the arm toward the school auditorium.

"Of course you do!" Carly told me, sounding as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and I could easily tell that she was pretty annoyed by my whining.

I just really didn't feel like showing up to that stupid play rehearsal. I had actually been considering sneaking out of the school through the back door when Carly found me. I just honestly did not feel like seeing that woman again; not after the little conversation we had had earlier today.

"Ugh," I groaned, not even bothering to disguise my frustration. "Why?"

"Because you're one of the leads!" Carly told me, clearly impatient. "The only reason you'd be allowed to miss a rehearsal would be if you were sick, which you clearly aren't."

That made an idea pop up inside my head. "Actually," I began, pausing in the middle of the hallway, which made Carly stop as well. "I don't think I've actually recovered that sickness from two days ago," I told Carly, trying to sound convincing, even though I knew this was already a lost battle. "Maybe I'd better just go home and rest some more."

I was about to spin around and make a run for the nearest exit I could find, but Carly grabbed my arm before I had the chance to, stopping me.

"Nice try," she said, sounding somewhat annoyed. Yeah, I guess I shouldn't have expected that to actually work. "Now, come on!"

And before I even had the chance to protest, Carly pulled me into the auditorium.

When we were inside, I instantly noticed that there was something different in that place. A pretty long table that hadn't been there when I'd showed up here this morning had been placed right in the center of the stage, but I just couldn't guess why. Carly and I were two of the very first people to arrive to the rehearsal, a fact that wasn't pleasing for me in any possible way, but I decided to keep my mouth shut about that as Carly dragged me toward the dozens of empty seats near the stage.

Oddly enough, not many people arrived after us. When the dork got there, he took a seat next to Carly, wisely avoiding sitting next to me, which made me realize that he already knew that I knew about the kiss.

Smart boy.

When the time for the rehearsal came, there were less than fifteen people in the auditorium, which was pretty weird to say the least, since the whole play cast and crew consisted of at least thirty people. I didn't put much thought into that, though. I mean, why would I care if barely anyone showed up? I had been considering ditching this rehearsal myself.

But what really made me confused was the fact that when Mrs. Mythens finally arrived, she didn't seem surprised at all by the unusually small number of people that had showed up. She simply walked up to the stage and began talking to us, just like she had done in the first play meeting.

"Welcome, welcome!" she greeted us, that annoyingly bright smile of hers playing on her lips. "As you all might have already noticed, the whole crew is absent today," she began, running her eyes over all of us. I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in my seat, trying to look bored out of my mind, which wasn't a really hard task to be honest. "We'll only be working with the cast today, which is why I thought it would be a lot more convenient for us and the crew if they were dismissed from today's rehearsal."

Well, that explained the unusually high number of absences. I sank even deeper into my seat as the woman continued to speak, already counting down to the moment I'd finally be allowed to go home. When the woman's eyes found me, I could swear I saw a hint of surprise cross her eyes and then a smile forming on her lips for barely a second, but she quickly looked away. It was like she had been sure that I wouldn't show up for today's rehearsal and she was honestly surprised to see me there, which was pretty much understandable to be honest. I mean, I was surprised I had showed up here myself.

"Now, let's go on to what matters, shall we?" Mrs. Mythens spoke again, abruptly breaking me out of my thoughts. "First of all, I'd like to ask you all to join me up here on the stage."

Everyone seemed pretty confused for a moment, but we all ended up lazily getting to our feet and walking toward the stage. There, following Mrs. Mythens's orders, each one of us took a seat at the long table I had spotted earlier. I still saw absolutely no point in this table, though. Why were we even sitting at it, anyway? Were we going to eat or something?

"Very well," the woman said when we were all seated. "Today, we'll be doing something different from what you've probably been expecting." She made a short pause as she walked up to one of the ends of the table, where what I could only guess was a copy of the play script had been placed. "This will be very similar to a table reading, but we'll also talk about the characters as Carly and I try to help you understand how your character's mind works."

She took a seat by the farthest end of the table, and as she sat down, her eyes met mine for a second, before she moved her gaze down to the script resting right in front of her on the table. "As I've already pointed out in our last meeting, acting isn't simply about pretending to be someone else. It's pretty much like a loan," she said in the exact same calm tone of voice she had used in her previous speech, which instantly made me feel sleepy. "You see, you're all here to give life to these characters, lending your own bodies so they can express themselves and tell their story. And I'm here to help you with that."

And that was when the two most boring hours of my life began.

Firstly, Mrs. Mythens made us all take our scripts out of our bags and leave them on the table right in front of us. And then, she began lecturing us all about our characters. She spent about half an hour just talking, but Carly helped her a few times.

My character, Mabel, was apparently a pretty insecure girl who had never been allowed to go to an actual school. She had had private teachers during her whole life, but now she was entering the last year of high school, and after a lot of begging from her part, her father had finally let her go to the same school her best friend went to. Their family was incredibly rich, since her father was the owner of some kind of huge company or whatever, rivaling the company owned by Bruno's family, who was played by Freddie. I didn't really get what their business was about, though, I just knew it had something to do with computers. During her first day at school, Mabel met Bruno, and then they'd start hanging out together and the whole forbidden love storyline would begin.

I had already gathered all that when I read the whole script a few nights ago, so I allowed myself to space out a lot during the woman's speech. Soon, though, we began what she described as the actual table reading, which actually meant us reading a few 'previously selected scenes' while she and Carly commented about the characters' thoughts, which were obviously not written down on the script.

After the tenth scene, I was about to stand up from my chair and storm out of that place, since I honestly couldn't take that torture anymore. But before I had the chance to do that, Mrs. Mythens spoke once again, and much to my relief, the words I heard come out of her mouth were exactly the ones I had been expecting to hear for quite some time now.

"Okay, I think that's enough for today," she told us, smiling once again, and I couldn't help but briefly wonder if her cheeks didn't hurt from smiling so much. "I hope this little meeting gave you all an idea of how to give life to your characters, but if it didn't, well, that's why I'll be here during every reheasal." She made a short pause as she ran her eyes over us. "Next rehearsal, we'll begin the actual work, so come prepared for some acting," she added after a few silent seconds. "See you all on Friday!"

I breathed out a loud sigh of relief at her words. "Finally," I said under my breath, and I clearly heard Freddie chuckling lowly at that. Carly, however, gave me an annoyed look, but I simply shrugged in response.

"So, are you guys gonna come over?" Carly asked me and Freddie as the three of us walked out of the auditorium.

"Sure," Freddie replied.

"Is that even a question?" I asked, and they both chuckled as we made our way out of the main entrance of the school.

* * *

**Author's Note: And there you have it! ;P**

**I know you're probably wondering why I didn't write any of the scenes in this chapter, but I've decided to write the whole play, and I just don't want to give too much away about it too soon. I hope you guys don't mind ;)**

**And now, do you know what would make me happy? Yeah, a cookie would too, but that's not what I meant! XD ****Yeah, now you're right! Reviews! :P**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**

**:D**


	9. Chapter 9: The First Scene

**Author's Note: *Holds up a white flag and a box full of chocolate***

**Okay, you can put the pitchforks down now! XD I'm so, SO sorry for not updating for so long! Like, REALLY sorry. I had never gone so long without updating ANY story. I don't really have a good excuse to give... I mean, I had no idea what I wanted for this story last year, and I had a major author's block back then, so I decided to take a little break from this story, but when I realized it, it had been over a year since I had last updated, so I finally sat down in front of my computer and got some work done XD**

**Anyway, here it is! Chapter 9 of A Chance For Romance! =)**

**Disclaimer: Do I look like Dan Schneider? Well, considering that I'm a girl, the answer to that question is no. Or at least I think so... XD Anyway, I don't own iCarly!**

**And I also don't own the song mentioned in this chapter!**

**Important: The Seddie Arc never happened in this story.**

**Enjoy! =)**

**EDITED CHAPTER - 01/02/13**

* * *

Chapter 9: The First Scene

Friday arrived too fast.

Isn't it weird that every time we want a day to arrive fast, it takes an eternity for it to get here, but when we actually want it to take an eternity, we simply blink and '_Bang!'_, it's here? Yeah, I know, I don't get life either.

Anyway, let's go straight to the point, shall we?

I was sitting in Howard's class with my arms folded over my chest, staring blankly at the board and not paying attention to anything Howard was saying. Nothing unusual there. The only weird thing was that, for the first time in my life, I didn't want Howard's class to be over, and considering that this was the last class of the week, that was a pretty foreign feeling to me. I guess it wasn't really hard to notice just how happy I was with the fact that I had a play rehearsal in a just a matter of minutes.

The sound of the final bell ringing loudly suddenly broke me out of current trail of thought, bringing me back to reality abruptly. Everyone started to stand up from their seats and leave the classroom, and I lazily did the same. The difference between me and pretty much everyone else in there was that _I _wasn't thrilled to be leaving that classroom, for obvious reasons. I calmly made my way to the main hall, intending to go over to my locker, and when I got there, Carly was already waiting for me.

"Hey there!" she greeted me, smiling, and I briefly wondered where Carly's usual happiness came from. I mean, that girl was always happy, so there might be some kind of explanation for that, right? I still hadn't been able to figure that one out, and honestly, I thought I never would.

"Hey," I greeted her back as I entered the combination of my locker. After opening its metal door, I started stuffing a few books inside of it, and Carly lost no time at all to begin talking.

"So, are you excited for today's rehearsal?" Carly asked me, still smiling.

"Should I really answer that?" I asked her, and she simply rolled her eyes at me, her happiness apparently not affected at all by my comment.

"Oh, come on!" Carly whined, but her complaint completely lost its purpose because of the fact that she was smiling lightly. "Why don't you just give this whole play thing a chance? Maybe you'll even enjoy it if you do."

"Whatever," I muttered, before closing my locker shut loudly, the sound of metal slamming against metal echoing through the hallway for a second.

And without another word, we both headed to the school auditorium.

When we got there, the only living creatures in that place were Mrs. Mythens and her little assistant, whatever her name was. They were both sitting in the first roll of seats, checking some papers that were resting on their laps as they discussed something I surely wasn't interested in. As soon as we entered the auditorium, though, they both looked up, and Mrs. Mythens smiled at us.

"Hello, girls," she greeted us both as she stood up from her seat and began making her way toward us. "How are you two doing?"

"We're great, thanks," Carly answered for both of us, smiling back, but I didn't even make any effort to do so too.

"That's great to hear," the woman replied. "So, are you girls excited about today's reheasal?"

I couldn't stop myself from scoffing at that, but they both chose to ignore it.

"Yes, of course!" Carly replied before I had the chance to make any kind of snarky comment. "We _both_ are," she added, giving me a look, and I simply rolled my eyes at her.

Mrs. Mythens smiled at us for a moment, until she suddenly looked as if she had just remembered something really important. "Oh, I just remembered," she announced, her gaze now focused on Carly. "There's something I need to discuss with you, Carly," she explained. "Do you rememeber what we were talking about yesterday? About scene eleven?"

And just like that, the conversation suddenly grew unbearably boring.

"I'm gonna be somewhere else," I announced, before turning around and walking away from the two without even waiting for a response, but before I had gotten out of earshot, I heard the beginning of their conversation, which was apparently about a few bushes and a car prop.

I took a seat near the back of the auditorium and put my earpods in, turning on some loud music. Ignorance by Paramore started playing as I watched the rest of the cast arriving gradually - Gibby, Shane, Jonah, Wendy, Kyle, Elena, Jake, Reuben, Candice and, of course, Freducchini. The people who would take care of the lighting, sound, props and such didn't need to come to every rehearsal, and today was one of those days when only a few of them showed up.

A few minutes later, eveyone was there, so Mrs. Mythens finally stopped talking to Carly and the rest of the props crew and walked up to the stage, just like she usually did. At the sight, Carly dragged me to the front of the auditorium, making me take a seat with her and Fredbag near the stage.

"Everyone, please sit down now," Mrs. Mythens's voice echoed inside the auditorium, coming from the stage. People quickly did what she said, and all the voices quieted down gradually. Carly had sat down right next to me, and after she elbowed me in the ribs, I got the earpods out of my ears and turned my attention to the woman who was staring down at us from the stage.

"I'm happy to see all of you here again." Her eyes paused on me for a brief moment, before she resumed talking. "Well, today we're going to rehearse a few scenes, so I can have a good idea of how each one of you will do on stage while acting with each other," she explained, and then looked down at the notebook she had in her hands. "I've selected the best scenes for that, which are the introduction and scenes #1, #12, #13, #21, #24, #25, #31 and #37." She made short pause as she examined our expressions, probably realizing that we all thought that was just too much work for one single rehearsal. "I know it sounds like a lot, but trust me, it's not," she told us, even though she probably knew it wouldn't be enough to convince anyone. Ignoring that, she went on. "Let's start with the introduction. Gibby, would you come up here, please?"

Gibby hesitated for a moment before standing up from his seat and walking all the way up to the stage slowly and shyly, probably because he was aware of the fact that all the eyes in the auditorium were focused on him, which clearly made him pretty nervous and uncomfortable.

Apparently, Mrs. Mythens had chosen not to do the scenes in order, because the next one she wanted to rehearse was number #21, which had Jonah and Reuben on stage.

I simply sat there and watched as the two boys did the scene. Mrs. Mythens gave them directions all the time, eventually writing something down in that little notebook of hers. I couldn't help but wonder in how many of those scenes I was. Yes, I still had some of the scenes pretty fresh in my mind, but I had already forgotten a great part of the script and I hadn't memorized the number of the scenes. I had no idea which scenes I was a part of, even though my script was inside my bag, which was lying on the seat right beside me. I was just too lazy to get it, since that would require too much effort from my part, and I just did not like making any kind of effort at all.

The next scene on the Mythens woman's list was number #12, and I soon found out that I was in that one, because Mrs. Mythens called me and Wendy to go up on the stage. I seriously had to think of an easier way to say that woman's name... I guess I'll have to come up with something later.

I finally got my script out of my bag and lazily made my way toward the stage. I obviously couldn't remember all the lines of that scene, so I kept glancing down at my script as Wendy and I did the scene, and Wendy was doing exactly the same thing. The only thing that annoyed me was that Mrs. Mythens kept telling us both what to do, like 'say it like this', 'look in that direction', 'stand there', 'take a step in that direction', 'move your hands like this', and so on. It was beyond annoying, to be honest. I just really hated it when people thought they could tell me what to do.

The woman apparently didn't want us to do the whole scene, just a part of it, and that became even more clear as the other scenes followed. The next one was scene #1, which had Shane and Freddie on stage.

I had to admit that I wasn't expecting so much of Freddie on stage, and I was surprised with what I saw. He was actually an extremely good actor, and-

Wait, did I just compliment Freddie? No, no, I didn't. Yeah, that's right, I said nothing.

A few more scenes went on, and I had to go up on the stage one more time, this time to do a scene with Jonah. Have I already mentioned just how much I still hated that guy? Ugh, the only good part of the scene was that we were fighting, and trust me, my anger was real. I was still pissed at him for trying to kiss Carly while he was dating me, and I was pretty sure he soon realized that.

After that scene was done, I went back to my seat next to Carly and watched the others doing a few more scenes. I had thought that I wouldn't need to get up again, but I was wrong. Turns out that I had counted the scenes wrong, so we still had one scene to do before I was free from that place, and guess what? I was in that one. But that wasn't all - Freddie was in it too. And that was it; just the two of us.

I had been aware of the fact that Freddie and I would be playing a couple in this play, but I guess I had been trying not to think too much about that. But now, I had nowhere to run anymore. I breathed in and out slowly, trying to calm myself down as I checked which scene Freddie and I would be doing, and as soon as I did, I started to pretty much freak out on the inside. No, it wasn't the kiss one, but it wasn't one I was thrilled to do either.

I had no idea why, but as I made my way toward the stage for the third time that day, my heart started to beat a lot faster than usual and I started to feel more nervous than I had ever been. Why was I feeling like this? I mean, it was just Freddie! And we were just about to do a scene of an in-love couple in a romantic date walking through the park. There was nothing to be nervous about, right?

Right?

When we started the scene, I was still freaking nervous, which only made things even worse than they already were. Because of my nervousness, I kept forgetting the majority of my lines, and I had to check the script in my hands a lot more often than I had needed to when I did my two previous scenes. For some reason, I found it pretty hard to look at Freddie in the eye during the scene, but when I did, I realized that he was apparently just as nervous as I was.

As the scene went on, my nervousness started to slowly wear off, but it came back instantly when I realized how that scene ended. And before I could even think about it, the ending was there. I had hoped that Mrs. Mythens would stop the scene before we got to the ending, just like she had done with some of the other scenes, but apparenty, she wanted us to do the whole thing.

Freddie rested a hand lightly on my arm as he looked deep into my eyes, and for some reason, I just couldn't make myself look away from him.

"Everything will be okay," Freddie said, his voice at the same time calm and firm. "I promise you."

Freddie hesitated for a moment, but he soon did what he was supposed to do - he wrapped both his arms around me and pulled me to him, hugging me tightly.

I closed my eyes, slowly breathing in his scent as I wrapped my own arms around him. I was suddenly overwhelmed by a warm feeling I had never felt before, which made me unable to move. After a few seconds, I felt Freddie's lips being pressed lightly against my forehead, and I swear my heart skipped a beat. For some reason, I found myself not wanting to let go so soon, which was odd, considering that what I should have actually done in a situation like this was pulling away from Freddie as soon as I could.

"Excellent!" I heard Mrs. Mythens's voice coming from behind us as she clapped her hands excitedly, suddenly breaking me out of my trance. "That was truly amazing!" she told us, and I could clearly hear in her voice that she was smiling. "Congratulations."

At the sound, Freddie instantly let go of me, but as soon as he pulled away from me, I felt like a mass of cold air had hit me with full force, and an involuntary chill went down my spine.

I then felt my face heating up a bit, and in that second, I knew that I was blushing. I looked away from Freddie, desperately trying to hide my face, since Sam Puckett definitely _did not _blush.

Mrs. Mythens then went on talking, and I was glad that she did, because then people wouldn't be paying attention to me and wouldn't notice that my face looked redder than usual.

"Well, this is it for today," Mrs. Mythens announced. "You all did an amazing job and have great potential in this play." She made a short pause, as if to let her words sink in. "I hope to see you all here on Monday. Well, have a great weekend!"

At those words, people started to stand up from their seats, grab their backpacks and leave the auditorium, clearly eager to be free from this school.

I desperately needed to get out of there, so I simply walked back to my seat, grabbed my backpack, swung it over my shoulder and left the auditorium hurriedly, not saying a single word, not even to Carly.

I just needed some time alone.

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**Author's Note: I really loved writing the last part of this chapter =) I thought it was pretty cute... =P**

**lol, anyway, thank you so much for reading! =D**

**And again, sorry for my lack of updates! I'll try to make up for it! ****=)**

**Reviews are highly appreciated ;)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	10. Chapter 10: Confusion

**Author's Note: Happy New Year! =D (Okay, I know it's kinda late to say that XD)**

**I was planning on posting this yesterday to celebrate the Seddie Kissaversary, but, well, things didn't go as I planned XP**

**Okay, no more talking! =P**

**Disclaimer: You know that amazing TV show, iCarly? Yep, that's the one. I don't own it.**

**Enjoy! =)**

**EDITED CHAPTER - 01/05/13**

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Chapter 10: Confusion

I hesitated as I stood in the hallway outside the Shays' apartment, simply staring at their front door for a moment.

I didn't want to be there. I just wanted to get away from things for some time, but we had to do iCarly tonight, so I had no other choice but to show up.

The problem was that I just couldn't make myself understand what had been happening to me lately. Since today's rehearsal, things had been... different. But I couldn't really understand why. I just kept thinking about how good it felt to have Freddie holding me the way he'd done today. I mean, no one had ever held me that way before, so I guessed that must be it. Or could it be something else? I mean... _Ugh, there I go again! Stop it, Puckett! _I told myself harshly. I just didn't seem able to keep that trail of thought out of my head for longer than a few minutes, no matter how hard I tried. _You can't think about Freddie that way! He's a nub, and you hate him._ Okay, maybe I didn't actually _hate _him, but...

You know what? Just forget I said anything.

I finally made myself open the Shays' front door and walk inside, and I was relieved to see that the dork was nowhere in sight. Instead of him or Carly, I saw Spencer in the kitchen, working on a new sculpture. I couldn't really understand what I was looking at, but it looked like a blue horse playing golf.

"Hey, Sam!" Spencer greeted me when he finally realized I was there.

"Hey, Spencer," I replied, still trying to understand the weird sculpture Spencer was working on. Realizing that I probably wouldn't be able to do that on my own, I decided to just ask him. "Uh... What's that?" I asked, pointing at his sculpture. I wasn't really all that curious about his sculpture, though. I was actually just trying to find a reason to stay downstairs until about one minute before the web show, just so we wouldn't have much time to talk upstairs, since I really didn't want the subject of the play rehearsal to be brought up.

"Oh, it's a sculpture that represents the complexity of modern society and its consequences to the environment," Spencer told me, sounding pretty proud of himself as he spoke.

I couldn't help but raise an eyebrown at that. "It looks like a blue horse horse playing golf," I pointed out.

"It does not! It's-" he started, stepping away from the sculpture, but as soon as he laid his eyes on it, he paused. "I should go get more paint for the head," he said and grabbed his jacket from the couch, before walking past me and leaving the apartment without another word or a single glance behind.

I chuckled at him and his randomness as I walked into the kitchen, making my way toward the fridge to get something to eat. It wasn't like I was actually hungry, since I'd eaten two fatcakes before leaving my house to come over here, but I didn't feel like going up to the studio just yet. And anyway, some free food just didn't sound bad at all.

It didn't take me long to find a plate full of ham, which I quickly grabbed. I then began eating the ham hungrily, closing my eyes at its delicious taste. _Oh, ham..._

And that was when I heard footsteps coming from the stairs. _Uh oh..._

"Spencer, have you seen my..." Carly paused, looking around confusedly. "Where's Spencer?"

"He went somewhere to buy more paint for the horse," I explained, pointing at his sculpture, and then focused my attention back on my ham.

"Oh..." was all she said for a moment. "And what are you doing down here?"

"Eating ham," I replied casually, shrugging lightly, as if it wasn't a big deal at all.

"But iCarly starts in less than fifteen minutes," she told me, pointing at her PearPhone.

"I know, but mama was craving some ham," I said, swallowing another slice of ham.

Carly chuckled lightly at that. "Okay, you can bring the ham along," she told me, clearly amused. "Come on, we have a web show to do." She grabbed my arm and began to practically drag me toward the stairs without even waiting for my reply.

"Can't I just finish eating down here?" I asked, whining.

"No!" Carly replied, still sounding slightly amused, and then started to drag me up the stairs.

When we got to the studio, I walked straight up to where the beanbag chairs were, near the car prop. I then let myself fall onto one of them, still holding the plate containing my ham in my hands as I resumed eating, not moving my gaze away from the plate until I had another delicious slice of ham stuffed in my mouth.

Just then I let myself scan the room with my eyes to find Freddie, and that was when I realized that he was standing by his cart, getting his techy stuff ready for the web show. I could have sworn that the moment my eyes found him, he looked down abruptly, like he had been staring at me. I quickly pushed that thought aside, though, guessing that I might be starting to see things too.

Much to my relief, no one talked for several minutes, and when we did talk, it was strictly about the web show we were about to do. I mentally sighed in relief because of that, glad that apparently neither Carly nor Freddie would bring the subject of today's rehearsal up.

And soon enough, Freddie was doing his usual countdown and Carly and I were standing in the center of the studio, waiting for the show to start.

"In five, four, three, two..." Freddie pointed at us, and I wondered for the hundreth time why he never said the one.

"I'm Carly!" Carly said happily from next to me, smiling brightly into the camera.

"And I'm Sam!" I said, smiling as well.

"And this iCarly!" we exclaimed at the same time, like we usually did when we started the web show, and I pressed a button on my blue remote, which made loud cheering noises echo inside the studio.

The show went on like always. Tonight, we had a new 'Messing With Lewbert' segment, and we did a segment that involved Gibby in a purple fox costume, a few gallons of white glue and _a lot_ of fudge. It was actually my idea, and I bet the audience loved it. But I kind of felt bad for Gibby... He probably wasn't going to show up at school for a few days...

"Well, this is it for tonight!" Carly said as she stepped in front of the camera, and I soon joined her.

I pressed the 'Awwww' button on my remote, pouting at the camera. "But we'll see you next week for a new webisode of..."

"iCARLY!" we exclaimed at the same time, and I pressed another button on the remote I was holding.

"_R__ANDOM DANCING!_"

The lights inside the studio started flickering and loud music started playing in the background as Carly and I started dancing around like crazy. We danced for about half a minute, until we heard Freddie's voice over all the noise.

"And we are clear!" he said as he pressed a few buttons on his laptop, which interrupted the webcast and made the music instantly quiet down. "Great show, girls."

"Thanks," Carly replied, but I didn't even bother to do so.

I let myself fall onto one of the beanbag chairs once again, feeling exhausted. Hosting a web show every week could be pretty tiring sometimes. As if that wasn't already enough, I was also pretty much starving, but I was too lazy- I mean, too tired to get up and go downstairs to get myself something to eat.

Much to my relief, I soon found out that I wouldn't have to.

"I'm going downstairs to get some iced tea," Carly announced as she began to make her way toward the studio door, breaking the silence that had taken over the studio for a few minutes. _Perfect timing, Carls, _I thought to myself. "Do you guys want something from the kitchen?"

"Bring me some fried chicken," I quickly ordered.

"Okay," Carly said, chuckling lightly. "Anything for you, Freddie?"

"No, thanks, Carly," he replied, looking up from his techy cart for barely a second, before focusing his attention back on whatever he was playing with on his laptop.

"Okay, then," Carly said, calmly pulling the studio door open. "I'll be right back!"

With that, she left the studio without a single glance behind... leaving me alone with Freddie.

I honestly hadn't realized that would happen if Carly went downstairs until she was gone, and now I regretted not going downstairs to get myself something to eat. I mean, that way I wouldn't have to be alone in this studio with Freddie. _Okay, don't panic, Sam,_ I told myself._ It's not like he'll try to talk to you about what happened or anything._

"Uh... Sam?" Freddie's voice suddenly broke me out of my trance, and I looked up at him, only to find him eyeing me nervously.

"What?" I replied, faking my usual 'I don't care' tone, and I was proud of myself when I realized that it came out the exact way I had intended it to.

"Can I ask you something?" he asked, clearly a bit more hesitant than a few seconds ago, probably because of the tone of voice I had just used.

"Sure," I replied, shrugging lightly as I tried to cover up my nervousness.

"Is everything okay with you?" he asked, still pretty hesitant to speak. "I mean, you've been acting pretty off since you got here."

I mentally cursed, but I tried not to let on just how annoyed I suddenly felt. Was I really making it _that_ obvious just how nervous and confused I was?

"What are you talking about, nub?" I asked, sounding at the same time confused and threatening, just like I wanted to.

"Uh... I don't know, I just thought that..." Freddie ran his hand through his hair, just like he always did when he was nervous.

"What?" I asked, but his voice seemed to be caught in his throat for a moment.

"Nothing," he finally said, clearly regretting that he had even said anything in the first place. "Just... just drop it." And with that, he turned around, walking back up to his cart, where he focused his attention back on his laptop.

I simply shrugged that conversation off and decided to ignore him, but I swear I could eventually feel Freddie's gaze on me. It was honestly starting to annoy me, and I was about to look up again and tell him to keep his eyes on whatever nerdy thing he was doing on his laptop when Carly suddenly walked back into the studio. I felt relieved as soon as I saw her, since her coming back stopped me from doing anything stupid.

"Here you go," Carly said as she handed me a plate with a pile of fried chicken legs on it, and I didn't even wait two seconds before grabbing one of those and taking a big bite of it into my mouth. I savored it for a long moment, before taking another bite. Man, how I loved fried chicken...

It didn't take me over than ten minutes to eat all the chicken legs that were on that plate, and I couldn't help but sigh contently as I set the plate on the floor right beside my beanbag.

"Sam?" Carly's voice brought me back to reality abruptly, and when I looked up, I realized that she had been waving her hand in front of my face, trying to get my attention, but I had been too lost in my food to notice it.

"What?" I asked, truly confused.

She chuckled at that. "Are you back from 'Dream-Food-land' already or do you want me to wait a few more minutes?" she asked me teasingly, and I simply rolled my eyes at her. "So, are you staying over tonight?"

"Uh..." The question honestly caught me off guard, and it took me a few seconds to be able to respond to that. "Actually, I'd better get going," I finally said, and a disappointed look instantly crossed Carly's face. "I need to help my mom with something," I told her, trying to make things better as I got back to my feet and began walking toward the studio door.

"So early?" Carly asked, and I could swear I saw Freddie looking up at the two of us from the corner of my eye as I turned around to look at her again.

"Yeah, uh... She asked me to," I told her, but soon realized that she probably wouldn't fall for that one. "And also, I... I gotta feed Frothy, so the sooner I get home, the better," I added, and even though I could easily tell by the look on her face that she was still suspicious, I kept walking toward the door. "See ya!" I said as I left the studio without another glance behind, hurrying down the stairs and out of the Shays' apartment.

Okay, yes, you got me. I was lying about needing to go home because my mom had asked me to help her with something, but I really just wanted to go home and be alone for a while. I wasn't lying about having to feed Frothy, though.

My walk home didn't take long, and soon enough, I had reached my room. Frothy cuddled up on the floor by my feet as soon as I sat down on my bed, and I leaned down to caress his head lightly. He purred lowly, closing his eyes as I ran my hand over his soft fur. I smiled at the sight, before standing up and walking toward the staircase that led to the first floor of my house, Frothy following close behind, as if he knew what I was about to do.

Just like I had imagined, his food bowl was empty, but he still had water. I threw the old water in the sink and filled the bowl with fresh water, and then picked up the food bowl and filled it with cat food, before laying it back down on the floor. And as soon as the bowl was on the floor, Frothy began eating. I watched him for a moment, before making my way back to my room, this time letting myself fall on my back onto the bed.

I closed my eyes and cursed myself for the way I had acted today. How could I have been so careless? Was it really that obvious that there was something bothering me? And anyway, why was I even letting it bother me?

I opened my eyes, suddenly realizing something. I was only feeling so freaked out and confused over this whole thing because I was letting myself feel that way, but maybe if I could just ignore what had happened, I could just go on with my life and everything would go back to normal. I mean, that was apparently what Freddie was doing. Or maybe...

Maybe there wasn't even something to be ignored. Maybe I was just making a huge deal out of nothing, when in fact, nothing worth worrying about had actually happened, and here I was, freaking out about it, when there was actually no need to.

_Yeah... Yeah, that's right. Nothing big happened, and I'm just overreacting over something that's actually not worth it._ I kept telling myself that as I adjusted myself on the bed and drifted off to sleep, too tired to even change into my pajamas.

But there was this little voice in the back of my head that kept telling me otherwise.

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**Author's Note: Look at that poor thing down there. It's called a 'Review Button'. It's been so lonely and depressed during the past few days. Why don't you click on it to make it happy? ;D**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	11. Chapter 11: The Jerk is Back

**Author's Note: I'm really sorry for the long wait, but school has been keeping me pretty busy lately =/**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

**EDITED CHAPTER - 01/31/13**

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Chapter 11: The Jerk is Back

I woke up the next day feeling incredibly better.

I felt as if yesterday's conclusion had lifted some kind of weight off my shoulders, and that made all the nervousness I had been feeling toward Freddie seem to have suddenly disappeared, and when Monday came around, everything was pretty much back to normal; much to my relief.

Luckily, the next rehearsals didn't involve any kind of close interaction between me and Freddie, so things were going on pretty well, even though I still felt pretty hesitant when I had to do a scene with him.

Two weeks passed, and I was actually beginning to think that things would finally start going well for me with this whole play thing. I almost felt like that whole hug scene had never happened, which was a pretty good sign in my opinion.

It was Friday, right after the last bell rang, and I was stuffing all my books inside my locker just like usual. It wasn't like I did homework or studied during the weekend anyway, so why carry all that unnecessary weight around with me?

I knew I had a play rehearsal in just a few minutes, but that thought didn't bother me as much as it used to a few weeks ago anymore. It was almost like it really didn't make a big difference in my day anymore, or at least not such a big a difference as before.

It took me a few seconds to finally realize that there was someone standing right behind me.

I quickly turned around, and I was surprised when I recognized who it was. And not only that, but I also felt extremely annoyed. It was someone I had hoped I'd never need to talk to ever again, or even see their face for that matter, but I guess that just wouldn't be possible anymore.

"Jonah?" I asked, his name coming out a bit more rudely than he had probably expected to hear, and he seemed pretty taken aback by the tone of my voice, but I honestly didn't care if I was being rude.

"Hey, Sam," he greeted me when he seemed to have finally recovered from the shock. "How are you doing?" I was also pretty much surprised by his tone of voice, since he was acting like he was my friend or something, and that made me want to punch him right in the face.

"Everything was fine until you showed up," I answered, and then went back to putting my books inside my locker, pretending that he wasn't there. I still hated that guy, and if he didn't walk away from me right now, he would probably end up going home with a broken arm today.

He had tried to cheat on me with my best friend, and after I broke up with him and we humiliated him live on iCarly, he simply went back to going out with practically every girl in Ridgeway, just like nothing had happened. And after a few days (or sometimes, hours), he'd simply dump whatever girl he had been dating and go on for the next one in line. Sometimes he'd even date up to three girls at the same time without the others knowing about it.

He had once tried to apologize to me and tell me that he was sorry about what he had done, and he'd practically begged on his knees for me to give him another chance. It was pretty pathetic if you ask me.

And the worst part of it all was that I could easily see that he didn't mean one single word he was saying. I felt like slapping him hard across the face right then and there, because I knew that he wasn't sorry at all, and that he'd do it all over again if he had the chance without even thinking twice about it, since that hadn't been first time something like this had happened. I had heard several stories about how Jonah, after cheating on a girl, had gone back to her to apologize and insisted that he was a better person now or whatever, but he'd do the exact same thing once again, cheating on her right under the girl's nose.

He was such a jerk.

"Ouch," he said, pretending to be offended. "I just wanted to know how you were," he continued, his voice filled with fake innocence. "I mean, we dated once."

I couldn't stop myself from scoffing at that. "Well, that's none of your business," I replied, closing the door of my locker shut a lot louder than I usually did, the loud bang echoing through the hallway for a moment, just to show him how angry I still was with him.

"Okay, why are you being so mean to me?" Jonah asked, trying to sound hurt, but I could see right past his little act.

"Do I really need to answer that?" I asked, and when I noticed Jonah wouldn't respond to that, I rolled my eyes at him and went on. "You dated me for almost a month, and then the first time I leave you alone with my best friend you try to kiss her. Then after we break up, you act like nothing happened and keep going out with any girl you come across until you get tired of her or start cheating on her, sometimes with more than one girl at a time." I glared at him at every word I spoke, doing my best to try to keep my voice low, although that suddenly seemed like a pretty hard task. "I mean, doesn't that already gives people an idea of the kind of jerk you are?"

I didn't wait for him to say anything; I simply turned around and started walking down the hallway, hoping that Jonah would stay behind, but unfortunately, he followed me.

"Okay, okay, that doesn't sound too good," he admitted, as if that would make me hate him any less. "But I've changed!"

I didn't even bother to look at him or to slow down my quick pace as I responded to that. "No, you haven't," I said, my tone hard. "And if I were you, I'd walk away right now, before my fist has a meeting with your face, and your teeth with the floor," I threatened angrily, and that seemed to be enough to make Jonah stop dead in his tracks, probably fearing for his life, and I was finally able to get away from him.

But I wasn't alone for long. I soon spotted Carly walking toward me, and in just a matter of seconds, she was walking right beside me, trying to catch up with my hurried pace.

"Hey, what was that about?" she asked me, and I raised an eyebrow at her, slowing my pace down a little.

"What?" I asked, even though I already knew what she was talking about.

"You arguing with Jonah," she replied, and I couldn't stop myself form sighing loudly. "What did he want?"

"He said he wanted to know how I was and kept insisting that he had changed, probably because he wants a second chance with me, but I didn't let him talk much," I explained, shrugging lightly as I spoke. "I threatened him, and that shut him up in a second."

"Well, threatening people usually works when it comes to you," she commented, chuckling. "But next time, don't just threaten him, if you get what I mean," she said, winking, and I simply smiled at her. Carly usually tried to supress my agressive nature, but there were some cases in which she pretty much supported it. Jonah was one of those.

"Threaten who?" Freddie spoke up as he suddenly emerged from one of the hallways we were walking by.

"Jonah," Carly answered simply.

"What did he do this time?" Freddie asked, his voice earning an unusually curious tone.

"Nothing, he just came around to annoy me," I said, not really feeling like talking about Jonah at all anymore.

"But what did he say?" Freddie insisted, and I wondered why he cared so much about it.

"Well, first he told me he just wanted to know how I was," I said, looking briefly over at Freddie, who seemed oddly interested in this whole Jonah situation, even though I honestly had no idea why. "Then he began insisting that he had changed, but I threatened him, and that shut him up."

"You don't believe he's really changed, do you?" Freddie asked, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at his question.

"Of course not!" I told him, sounding slightly impatient. "He'll never change. And he can fall into a bottomless well for all I care."

For some reason, Freddie seemed to be pretty relieved when he heard that.

_What's up with that boy? _I wondered, but I didn't have much time to think about it, because we then arrived at the auditorium for another play rehearsal.

The rehearsal went on pretty well, just like all the other ones after the one I'd been trying my best not to think about. Of course, except for one thing - Jonah was there. It was just when I saw him there that I remembered he was actually part of the cast, a fact that had slipped away from my mind completely, since we hadn't done any scenes together yet, and I hoped things would stay that way for long time.

Jonah sat as far away from us three as possible when he arrived for the rehearsal, which pleased me very much. He was probably afraid that I'd beat him up in the middle of the auditorium, in front of the whole cast and crew.

Smart boy.

After a while, I was finally able to get my mind off Jonah and his ridiculous story of suddenly becoming a better person as I watched Freddie and Kyle doing a scene up on the stage. It still surprised me how good Freddie was at acting. I wondered if he had ever taken any acting classes with his mother or if it was just some kind of natural gift.

But of course, I'd never tell him any of that.

As Freddie walked down the stairs on the right side of the stage when he and Kyle were done with the scene, walking back to his seat next to me and Carly, he sent a glance in Jonah's direction. And it wasn't simply a glance; it was more like a glare. Actually, more like a death glare, and trust me, momma knows those.

I frowned, watching Freddie curiously for a brief moment, but when he suddenly looked in our direction, I quickly looked away, pretending that I hadn't been looking.

I wondered what that had been about. I mean, he couldn't have done that because he was mad at Jonah for pissing me off today, could he? No, definitely not. Why would he, anyway? He hated me, so why would he care as much as to be pissed at Jonah as well?

But I had a weird feeling that there was something up with him, and I, for some reason, wanted to figure out what it was.

* * *

**Author's Note: I have a feeling Jonah won't give up so easily... ;D**

**And what's up with Freddie? *Mysterious music* Hehe :P**

**Thank you so much for reading! =)**

**Do you know those beautiful and magical things that make me extremely happy? Those amazing things called reviews? Why don't you leave me one of those? ;D**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	12. Chapter 12: Insanity

**Author's Note: I'm sorry for the long wait, but I've been unbelievably busy these past few weeks. Well, the new chapter is finally here! And it's the longest one so far! ;D**

**Disclaimer: If I owned iCarly, I'd have never allowed so much Creddie in an episode like there was in iOpen a Restaurant, especially not after the Seddie arc.**

**Enjoy! ;)**

**EDITED CHAPTER - 02/06/13**

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Chapter 12: Insanity

It wasn't my fault, I swear.

Okay, maybe it was partially my fault, but I didn't screw everything up like Rodney did.

I sighed soundlessly, bored out of my mind. I was in detention with Mr. Howard because of what could have been the best prank of the year if someone hadn't screwed everything up so badly. So there I was, sitting on that highly uncomfortable chair, simply glaring at the teacher, whose eyes kept traveling around the classroom, watching everyone who was there carefully. We were a total of seven people, and six of us were involved in the prank in some way.

I checked the time on the clock that hung on the wall near the window. It had been barely five minutes since I had sat down on that chair, and I already couldn't take it anymore. Okay, I know that I got in detention a lot, but that didn't mean I liked it.

Things stayed like that for about ten more minutes. I just kept glaring at Howard, and he sometimes glared back. Rodney kept texting someone whenever Howard wasn't looking, probably selling stuff over text messages, which was something he had started doing recently. Jeffery was asleep a few seats to my right, and he was even drooling a bit on his desk, but Howard didn't seem to care. All the others were simply staring off into space just like me, and I bet they were all just as bored as I was.

When I was seriously starting to consider coming up with a plan to get out of that torture, no matter what I had to do, someone knocked on the classroom door, making everyone jump on their seats, startled by the sudden sound.

I didn't even bother look up; I simply watched as Howard stood up from his chair and walked to the door from the corner of my eye. It was probably just Ms. Briggs passing by to invite Howard to go to the teachers' room after detention was over so they could make out.

Ew.

Much to my surpruse, though, I was wrong.

"What?" I heard Howard's voice, which sounded a lot louder than usual, and I looked up abruptly. I couldn't see who he was talking to, since whoever it was preferred to stay outside the classroom, but I could clearly see that Howard wasn't pleased at all with their presence. "No, but... But she... You can't just... Principal Franklin won't... Oh, he did? But why... But still, she... Ugh! Fine!"

I couldn't really make out everything he was saying, but it's not like I was really interested in it, anyway.

Howard suddenly turned around and pointed a finger in my direction. "You!"

"Me?" I asked confusedly, not sure if he was really talking to me.

"Yes, you, Puckett," he replied, impatience clear in his voice. "Come here!" Shrugging, I stood up from my seat, before starting to make my way over to the door. "And grab your stuff," he added when he realized that I'd left my backpack lying on the floor by my desk.

Rising an eyebrow and not having a single clue of what the hell was going on, I did as he told me and swung my backpack over my shoulder before walking up to where he was, and that was when I was finally able to get a look at who was standing just outside the door.

"Mrs. Mythens?" I asked, surprised to see her, of all people, standing in the hallway.

"Hello, Saman..." I glared at her. "Sam."

"Okay, that's enough talking," Howard said, sounding even more impatient than before. "You two just leave, alright?"

"Wait, what? I can leave?" I asked, and he rolled his eyes at me.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, practically pushing me out the door. "Now get out of here before I change my mind!" he added, waving us away with his hand, and we quickly did as he said.

"What did you just do?" I asked Mrs. Mythens after we had rounded the corner by the end of the hallway, which meant that there was enough distance between us and the classroom for us to be out of earshot, coming to a stop in the middle of the hallway.

"I got you out of detention," Mrs. Mythens replied, shrugging as she stopped walking as well and turned around to face me.

"Yeah, I got that part," I replied, rolling my eyes at her. "But why did you do it?" I asked, and she seemed to finally realize that I wasn't going anywhere until she told me what was going on.

"Clarice is here today," she explained, but I simply kept staring at her with a confused expression on my face. Realizing that I had no idea who she was talking about, Mrs. Mythens went on. "She's the woman who'll take care of the cast outfits," she told me. "She'll measure the whole cast today, and this was the only day she had available this month. And if we don't start taking care of this now, the outfits won't be ready in time. So when Carly told me you were in detention, I knew I had to get you out of there." Well, that kind of made sense... kind of. But still, how the hell did she manage to get Howard to let me leave?

"But how did you do it?" I voiced my thoughts.

"I asked Ted for a little favor," she told me with a light shrug of her shoulders, as if it wasn't such a big a deal.

"And he agreed with it?" I asked, surprised.

"He owed me one," she explained, shrugging once again. "Now, come on! We're late," she told me, and then resumed walking to the auditorium. I stood there for a moment, but I ended up following her anyway.

When we arrived at the auditorium, I thought we'd part ways, but as soon as I spotted Carly, I realized we probably wouldn't, since Carly was sitting near an old woman who I assumed was Clarice, and Freddie was sitting on the seat right beside her. Okay, yes, I was thankful that the woman had gotten me out of detention, but that didn't mean I had to start to actually like her.

I had to sit beside Freddie, since he was occupying the seat I wanted, and as I soon as I sat down, I began to watch as Clarice wrapped a measuring tape around Elena's wrist, waist, shoulders and other places, writing the measures she got from that down on a small notebook that was resting on a table placed right next to her.

And after about five seconds, I realized just how boring this was going to be. When Clarice was done with Elena, she called Wendy's name, and then she started the process all over again. She did that with absolutely everyone from the cast, and honestly, it couldn't be more boring.

After about an eternity, she called Freddie's name, and she repeated the whole process with him. When Clarice was done with him, he came back to where he had been sitting, apparently to wait for me and Carly.

I was honestly starting to think that the woman had forgotten about me when she finally called my name, and after lifting myself lazily from my seat, I dragged myself up to where she was, which was honestly just three steps away, but it still took a lot more effort than I'd have been happy with, and then I just stood there as the woman did her job. It didn't take her long to be done with me, but it was still pretty annoying to simply stand there while she wrapped her measuring tape around my shoulders, arms, waist, chest, and so on.

When she finally said I could go, I breathed out a sigh of relief and quickly walked back over to my seat, where Carly and Freddie were waiting for me. And as soon as I got there, Carly turned on her seat to face me, but instead of the 'So, let's get going?' I was expecting her to say, she told me and Freddie that she still needed to discuss some things with Mrs. Mythens, whom she had been talking to for the past half an hour. She said that we could go ahead without her and that she'd meet us by our lockers in just a few minutes.

"Okay, then," I said, shrugging as I grabbed my backpack and threw it over my shoulder.

Freddie and I left the auditorium without a word and walked all the way to the big double doors of the main hall, which led outside the school. When we got there, Freddie excused himself saying that he needed to get something he had forgotten in his locker and walked away, leaving me standing alone by the school entrance, and I couldn't help but think back about how Freddie had acted after I told both him and Carly how my conversation with Jonah had gone.

Carly seemed pretty surprised that Jonah had had the guts to come and talk to me like that after what he had done to me, and also after what we had done to him in return, and I had to admit that I felt the same way. But beyond that, I also felt angered, since I just couldn't forget the jerk he really was, and also because he had actually had the nerve to try to convince me he had changed, since he obviously wanted me to give him a second chance, even though it was clear that he hadn't changed even the slightest bit. That was, if he hadn't gotten even worse.

But what really intrigued me was the way Freddie acted the days that followed my little exchange with Jonah. Every time Jonah was anywhere near me, Freddie just kept glaring at him for brief moments, during which I guessed he thought I wasn't looking. But what intrigued me the most was the fact that Freddie seemed to actually care about what had happened, and he even seemed to be worried about me.

I'd known Freddie for just as long as I'd known Carly, but we'd never actually had a normal friendship. That was, if our relationship could even be called a friendship with all the arguing and fighting on daily basis. We'd always claimed that we hated each other, even if deep down I knew that wasn't exactly true. But I had never been able to figure out if Freddie truly hated me, or if he simply pretended to, just like I did sometimes.

But now, because the way he was acting, I was beginning to think that he didn't actually hate me, especially after he started to ask me if Jonah had tried to talk to me again every now and then. I had considered asking him why he seemed so worried about me, but I decided it was better not to and ended up leaving things the way they were.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I spotted someone I honestly didn't want to see right now approaching me. I hoped that they'd just walk past me without a word, since I seriously wasn't in the mood to talk to them, but things just had to go the way I didn't want them to, didn't they?

"Hey, Sam!" Jonah called out when he reached me, saying it like he was actually my friend, and like I didn't want to punch him in the face right then and there.

"What do you want, Jonah?" I asked, obviously annoyed by all his friendliness.

"I just wanted to ask you if you thought about what we talked about the other day," he asked, shrugging.

I rolled my eyes at that. "Even if I had, the answer I'd give you wouldn't be different from the one I gave you that day," I answered, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at him.

"And why is that?" he asked, as if surprised by my answer. "Why won't you give me another chance?"

"Maybe because you don't deserve one," I said, still glaring at him. "Jonah, what you did to me wasn't something small that could be ignored, and you know that. You tried to cheat on me, with my best friend, no less! Do you really think I could forget that? And you can tell me that you've changed as many times as you want, but that won't change a thing. You won't have me fooled, Jonah. Not again."

Instead of the response I was expecting to get from him, which was something around the lines of him insisting that he had changed; that he had become a better person and all that stuff I knew wasn't true, his face was emotionless during my whole speech, and he remained silent when I stopped talking.

I took that as my cue to leave, so I started to make my way toward the school exit, deciding to wait for Carly and Freddie outside. But before I could take more than three steps away from Jonah, I felt a hand grabbing my wrist and forcing me back. I looked up, surprised, since I hadn't been expecting him to do something like that.

"Not so fast," Jonah said, still holding my wrist.

"Let go of me," I growled, trying to yank my arm free, but failing miserably. I didn't know Jonah was so strong.

"Sure, but before I do that…" He took another step toward to me, so now he was standing a lot closer to me than I would have been comfortable with. "Listen, Sam, I'm not taking no for an answer. I just want another chance with you, and I always get what I want."

I suddenly started to feel nervous. Was he serious?

"You're insane," I said, but when I was about to try to yank my arm free once again, Jonah lifted his free hand - the one that hadn't been holding tightly onto my wrist - and moved it to the back of my head as he suddenly leaned in.

It all happened so fast and so unexpectedly that I didn't even have a chance to react. The next thing I knew was that Jonah had his lips pressed forcefully against mine, and he was using his hand to hold my head in place, so I wouldn't pull away from him.

The shock wore off quickly, though, and without even hesitating, I bit down hard on his lower lip; so hard that as soon as my teeth came in contact with his lips, I felt the metallic taste of blood in my mouth.

Jonah pulled away instantly and quickly pressed the hand that had been holding my wrist against his now torn and bloody lip.

And before he could do anything else, I slapped him on the face with as much strength as I could gather, which was enough to knock him off his balance. I was pleased to see that his cheek soon started to grow a deep shade of red.

"Now you listen to me, Jonah," I began, anger clear in my voice. "Don't you ever try something like that again, or I swear you'll earn much more than a torn lip and a red cheek!" Jonah simply stared at me with a shocked expression on his face, and I honestly meant every single word that left my mouth.

I didn't even wait for a reply; I just turned on my heel and started walking toward the front school door, but Jonah called after me.

"Sam, wait!" he said, and I paused for a moment, before turning around slowly.

"Go to hell, Jonah," I said, and with that, I left the building, leaving Jonah standing alone in the middle of the hallway with one hand pressed against his mouth, probably in an effort to try to stop his torn lip from bleeding.

The moment I was outside, I punched the first thing that came into view, which was the nearby brick wall. It hurt a lot at first, but in that moment, I didn't care. I was so angry that I didn't even feel the pain after a few seconds, but I knew that I'd probably feel it later. I don't even know how long I stood there, simply taking several deep breaths in a failing effort to calm myself down, but I could tell it had been a while.

I guess I just lost track of time, since I was pretty much overwhelmed by anger. That was, until I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I turned around abruptly, ready to throw another punch if needed, when I realized that who was standing right in front of me wasn't Jonah, but Freddie.

"Hey, what are you-" Freddie stopped abruptly as soon as he caught the sight of my face. "What happened?" he asked, sounding honestly worried. I guess it wasn't hard to see that there was something wrong, and I wasn't making any effort to hide it, anyway.

"Jonah," I answered, sighing, and Freddie's face suddenly grew serious.

"What did he do this time?" he asked, his voice earning a tone I had never heard him using before.

After taking another deep breath, I told him everything that had gone on between me and Jonah. I didn't know why, but since Freddie showed up, I started to feel better. For some weird reason, it was like his presence was enough to calm me down, and I was suddenly glad that he was there. But beyond that, it also felt good to take that weight off my chest by telling him what had happened.

As I narrated my conversation with Jonah, the worry I could clearly see in Freddie's face slowly changed to anger. By the time I finished talking, he had both his hands clenched into fists as he glanced back into the school. It didn't take me long to realize what he was thinking about, since it was pretty obvious that he was wondering if Jonah was still in there.

Before he could do anything reckless, though, I laid one hand on his forearm. "Freddie, don't even think about it," I said, and just then he looked back at me. There was something different in his eyes, but I couldn't quite understand what it meant.

"Why not?" he asked, and I was taken aback by how angry he sounded. "He deserves it."

"Yeah, but think about how much trouble you'd get into by beating him up on school grounds," I pointed out, trying to put some sense into that thick head of his, but I could tell it wasn't really working, since he glanced back inside the school once again, completely ignoring me. "Freddie, look at me!" I exclaimed, losing my patience, and he hesitantly did as I said. "Just don't, okay? It's not worth it." I sighed when I realized that he still wasn't entirely convinced. "Please," I added, looking deep into his eyes, practically begging for him to listen to me.

At first I thought he'd just keep ignoring me, but after a few seconds, his shoulders relaxed a bit, and he sighed loudly. "Fine," he said, finally giving in. "But if he ever tries anything like that again, I swear-"

I cut him off before he had the chance to finish that. "He won't. And even if he does, I can take care of myself," I said, and much to my relief, he nodded in agreement, but I could clearly see that he still wanted to go after Jonah. It was just then that I realized my hand was still gripping his forearm, so I quickly pulled it back.

Freddie looked down at it and frowned, reaching out and taking my hand in his. I was surprised when he did that, until I realized that was the hand I had used to punch the wall earlier, and that my knuckles on that hand were bleeding a little bit, since I had apparently torn the skin there when I hit the wall.

"What happened to your hand?" he asked, looking up at me.

"I was so angry because of what Jonah did that I punched the wall," I answered, shrugging like it was no big deal and trying to hide the fact that now that I had calmed down, my hand had begun to hurt like hell. That hadn't been the first time I had punched the first thing that came into view for being too overwhelmed with anger to form any kind of coherent thought, but the unlucky inanimate object had never been something so resistent. A wooden door, yes, but never a brick wall.

"You should probably let the school nurse take a look at this. You could have dislocated something," he said, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at him, pulling my hand back and out of his grasp.

"I'm fine, Fredward," I told him, trying to make him drop the subject, but he just refused to let it go.

"No, you're not, Sam," he said, his voice unusually firm. "Someone needs to take a look at that, and now. Come on, I'll go with you." He walked over to the door right behind me, before opening it and then holding it open for me.

I sighed, defeated. I guess there was no point in trying to make him change his mind, since he could be just as stubborn as me when he wanted to.

I slowly walked past Freddie and entered the school, and Freddie instantly joined me inside.

And after about twenty minutes, we were both standing near the doors of the auditorium, waiting impatiently for Carly to get out of there. I had a piece of gauze wrapped around my wounded hand. According to the school nurse, I was lucky I hadn't dislocated anything, but I did manage to cut all my knuckles on that hand. Just like he had promised, Freddie hadn't left my side since he found me outside the school, and I had to admit that I was glad he had actually stayed with me.

Not that I'd ever tell him that.

The auditorium doors burst open suddenly, and much to my relief, Carly walked out. She smiled brightly when she spotted us standing there and skipped her way toward us.

"Thank you for waiting for me! I just had to discuss a few things with- Oh my god! Sam, what happened to your hand?" Carly exclaimed, looking down at my right hand.

"It's nothing serious, Carls. Just a few scratches," I explained, shrugging, and even though she still didn't seem entirely convinced, she dropped the subject. I was glad she did, since I didn't really feel like narrating my conversation with Jonah again, or at least not right now, but I somehow knew that she would ask me about my wounded hand later. That was fine with me; I just really wanted to get out of that school as soon as possible.

Carly called Spencer as we headed to the school parking lot, where we'd wait for him to pick us up. And during the whole car ride to Bushwell Plaza, I just couldn't make myself stop thinking about what had happened between me and Freddie just a few minutes earlier.

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**Author's Note: So, does that long and Seddie-ish chapter make up for the long wait? *****puppy dog eyes* XP**

**Review, review, review! ;D**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	13. Chapter 13: Mrs Mythens's Suggestion

**Author's Note: I'm pretty sure I was supposed to say something here, but it's almost 2AM here in Brazil right now, and my thoughts aren't exactly coherent at the moment (I really need to sleep), so I'll just shut up and go on with the story XD**

**Disclaimer: What am I supposed to say here? Oh, yeah! I don't own iCarly. Enough said.**

**Enjoy! ;)**

**EDITED CHAPTER - 02/07/13**

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Chapter 13: Mrs. Mythens's Suggestion

The final bell rang.

I sighed as I started stuffing my things inside my bag and quickly left Ms. Briggs's classroom, but even though I was finally free from that woman, I wasn't exactly glad that the last class of the day was over. I knew that this was the time of the day when I was usually jumping up and down in happiness, since normally it would finally be time to go home, but not today. It was Friday, and that meant that before I could finally be free from this place so many people called school - but that actually reminded of juvie in several more ways than people could imagine - I'd still have to sit through today's rehearsal.

Isn't that great?

Please notice my sarcasm.

The problem wasn't the rehearsal itself, though, but who would be there. And by that I meant Jonah.

I guess my reasons for not wanting to see his face were pretty much obvious, considering what had happened two days ago, but honestly, I had been trying not to think too much about that, since just the sound of his name was already enough to make me angry.

As soon as I was out of the classroom, I spotted Carly standing just a few steps away from me, leaning against the opposite wall of the hallway as she waited for me. She had Physics with Mr. Lenning in her last period, which was only three classrooms down the hallway from the one I had just left, so she would sometimes wait for me there on Fridays so we could go to our lockers together.

The moment I reached her, she started chatting happily about an idea she had had for a new iCarly segment as we began making our way to our lockers, which weren't really far from where we were. Things went on like that for a while, with me and Carly chatting by our lockers, until I spotted Freddie walking toward us, which brought one pretty confusing train of thought back into my mind.

I honestly still didn't know what to think of what had happened last Wednesday.

What happened had only made me hate Jonah even more than I already did before. I had felt so grossed out by the fact that his lips had actually made contact with mine, even if the kiss couldn't have lasted longer than three seconds, that the first thing I did when I got home that day was wash my mouth for almost half an hour, and I still felt as if it weren't clean enough.

But my hatred for Jonah wasn't the only reason why I ended up not sleeping well at all that night.

I had never seen Freddie so angry in my life, and I knew him since I was eight years old, which had been about eight years ago, so that must mean something. Honestly, I was surprised that he cared as much as to want to go pick up a fight with Jonah for me. He had never shown any signs that he actually considered me to be a close friend of his, so the fact that he was actually willing to do go after Jonah was surprising; shocking, even. I mean, I had never treated him as a close friend, or not even as a friend for that matter.

But even though he probably didn't know about it, I actually considered him to be my friend, but I had never given him any reason to want me around, and it still surprised me that he managed to put up with me on daily basis, when I knew most people wouldn't.

Well, maybe he did it for Carly. It had never been a secret that he'd had a major crush on Carly since forever, and in order to be around her, he'd have to be around me, so that must be why he coped with the constant insults - to be around his precious Carly. Ugh, I had no idea know why, but the thought of those two together made me sick. I felt extremely glad that Carly had already assured both of us that nothing would ever happen between her and Freddie, because the thought of them dating truly sickened me.

Wait, did I really just think that?

Anyway, back to the point. Freddie probably thought that I hated him, but I actually didn't. Of course, when he first came along, I didn't like him very much, mainly because he was all dorky and nerdy and stuff, but as time passed, I guess I kind of came to actually enjoy his company a little bit, or at least I found a way to tolerate all his nerdiness. And also, I sort of cared about him, even though I usually didn't make any effort to show that to him.

I hadn't told Freddie not to go after Jonah just because he could get in trouble and because it wouldn't solve anything. I'd done it because even though Freddie had actually been building up some muscles – but you'd never hear me admitting that out loud –, Jonah was even more built up, and he would probably beat the fudge out of Freddie. And even though I constantly caused Freddie physical pain, I wouldn't like to see him being beaten up by Jonah.

But of course, he'd never know about any of that.

When Freddie reached us, Carly started telling him about the idea she had had for iCarly, just like she had done with me, and we soon started making our way to the school auditorium. Just like usual, Carly went ahead to talk to Mrs. Mythens to know if there were any news or anything like that, since Carly was the one who had written the play in the first place, and she liked to keep herself updated on everything that was going on.

While Carly and Mrs. Mythens talked, Freddie and I sat down on two of the hundreds of red seats there were in that place, choosing to sit near the stage, just like everyone always did during the rehearsals. We were both silent for a while, until Freddie suddenly broke the silence.

"So," he started, sounding slightly uncomfortable as he shifted his weight on his seat. "How's your hand?"

I was a bit taken aback by his question, so it took me a few seconds to respond. "It's way better," I told him, looking down at my right hand. I had taken the gauze off because I didn't think I needed it anymore, and the cuts were already healing, but it still hurt a little bit.

"Good," he said, and sent me a small, shy smile. Something flipped inside of me when he did that, and before I knew it, I found myself smiling back. But the moment I realized what I was doing, I quickly looked back down at my hand, the smile instantly fading from my lips. What the hell was going on with me lately?

We didn't say anything else to each other after that little exchange, and soon, Carly joined us, taking the empty seat beside me. And soon after that, Mrs. Mythens went up on the stage and began talking, just like she did in the beginning of every single rehearsal.

Even though I had somewhat managed to make myself forget about the scene Freddie and I had done just a few weeks ago, during every rehearsal, I'd caught myself secretly hoping that we wouldn't need to do another scene together so soon, even though I knew that was kind of impossible, considering that we were the leads and all.

Well, I can dream, can't I?

But I had to admit that I was surprised at the end of today's rehearsal when I realized that this was already the seventh rehearsal in a roll in which we hadn't done a scene together, only with other people; me mainly Wendy and Candice, and Freddie, mainly with Shane. But I couldn't say I wasn't happy about it, since I knew just how awkward things would get again when we did another scene like that last one together.

I knew it might sound weird, but during these past two days, the awkwardness from that rehearsal seemed to have lessened down a little bit, especially after that little incident with Jonah, but I was sure that another scene like that one would only make things awkward between us once again, maybe even worse than before, and for some reason, I didn't want that to happen.

Another thing that made me feel relieved was the fact that I still hadn't had to do a scene with Jonah after he'd suddenly began trying to get me to give him a second chance, and I hoped things would stay that way for a while. He hadn't even tried to talk to me again, so maybe that was a sign that he had given up on trying to get another chance with me, but I still had my doubts about it. Jonah didn't seem like the kind of guy who would give up that easily, even though I was hoping that he would be smart enough to just leave me alone, before someone – and by someone I mean him – got badly hurt.

The rehearsal seemed to fly by, and when I realized it, it was already time to leave. I had to admit that this whole play thing wasn't being as bad as I had thought it would be in the beginning, if you left out the part of Freddie and I having to act like an in love couple and all.

Everyone gathered their belongings and started to leave, and the three of us began to do the same. We were just heading toward the exit when a voice called out after us.

"Carly! Sam! Freddie! Would you stay for a minute?" Mrs. Mythens asked, smiling at us from the stage.

We all paused halfway to the doors and waited for everyone else who was still in the auditorium to leave. I briefly wondered what that woman wanted, and for some reason, I had a feeling that whatever it was, I wasn't going to like it.

"So… What do you want?" I asked impatiently as soon as the doors closed shut after the last person exited the auditorium, leaving us alone with Mrs. Mythens, who had walked over to where we were standing, and her little assistant, who was sitting far away from us, going through some papers she had in her hands.

"I'm sure you all have noticed that I've been avoiding to rehearse scenes with you two, right?" she asked us, her eyes going back and forth between me and Freddie, and I simply frowned at her. I had a really bad feeling about this…

"Well, yeah…" Freddie said, letting his voice hang in the air, clearly just as confused as I was.

"The reason why I've been doing that is because I have something to ask of you," she went on. "As you may already know, the play is very long, and we have only a few months to make it perfect, which is very little time if you think about it." She made a short pause. "And I have noticed that you two get pretty tense whenever you have to do a scene with each other, so I think that it would be better for all of us if you two rehearsed a bit outside the school at least once a week, so we'll be making a lot more progress with your acting," she explained, and I couldn't help but gape at her, completely shocked.

Was she serious? She couldn't be.

I was speechless, and apparently, so was Freddie. It took me a few seconds to finally find my voice again, but just as I was about to ask the lady if she was insane or something, Carly spoke up.

"What a brilliant idea!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands happily.

"I'm glad you like it," Mrs. Mythens replied, smiling at Carly's enthusiasm. "And I'd like you to be present in said rehearsals, considering that you're the one who wrote the play, so you can coach them on how to play their characters the way you imagined them," she told Carly, and then handed her a small piece of paper I hadn't realized she had been holding. "I wrote down the scenes I think you should pay most attention to. Well, good luck!" She flashed us a smile, and then left the auditorium without a single glance behind, as if she somehow knew that I was sending daggers at her with my eyes.

"This is gonna be so much fun!" Carly said excitedly, making me tear my eyes away from the auditorium doors.

"Wait, are you serious? You really think we should do what she said?" I asked in disbelief.

"Of course! Why shouldn't we?" Carly asked, and my voice suddenly got caught in my throat. Rehearsing outside the school would for sure be just as bad as rehearsing here in the school, maybe even worse, and it would probably make things unbearably awkward for both me and Freddie, but I couldn't really tell Carly what was going through my head in that moment, especially with Freddie standing right next to me. And speaking of which…

I turned to Freddie, expecting him to back me up and tell Carly that this wasn't a good idea, but he simply shrugged, as if telling me that the decision was up to me. I sighed, looking back at Carly, only to find her giving me a puppy dog look. I tried to resist for a moment, but whenever that girl wanted something, she got it, so I knew from several past experiences that it was useless to argue with her.

"Fine," I gave in, sighing loudly.

"Yay!" she exclaimed, and hugged me tightly. "We can rehearse on Saturdays, before our creative meeting for iCarly! We can start tomorrow! Oh my god, this is gonna be so cool, I mean…" Carly started going on and on about the rehearsals as we made our way out of the auditorium and out of Ridgeway, and she didn't seem willing to stop talking anytime soon.

_Well, maybe it won't be so bad, _I thought to myself, trying to sound confident, but deep down I knew this wasn't a good idea.

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**Author's Note: That's right, Sam. Maybe it won't be so bad... Or... will it? Hehe ;D**

**Thank you all so much for reading! =)**

**I love reviews ;)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	14. Chapter 14: Scenes & Popcorn

**Author's Note: Okay, I have two things to say...**

**Firstly, I'm currently rewriting the first few chapters of this story and editing the others, just like I did with two other stories of mine. In this case, I'm rewriting the first eight chapters of the story, and then I'll edit the rest. If you're wondering why I'm doing that, well, the reason is very simple. The first eight chapters of this story were written back in 2009, and my English was pretty much horrible back then, so those chapters have several grammar mistakes in them and are just extremely poorly written. Chapters 9-12 just need to be edited, since I know there are several mistakes in them as well. And since I'll be editing almost all the chapters, I'll edit chapter 13 as well XP Rewritten chapters 1-4 are already up. ;) Nothing changed in the chapters, though, so there's no need for you guys to read them if you don't want to =)**

**And secondly, beginning in the next chapter, my updates for this story will probably become a lot more frequent because when I post chapter 15 I'll have already finished posting the edited chapters, which take a lot more time than I thought they would XD (And also because of another reason that would take too long to be explained XP).**

**Okay, I think that's enough talking =P I'll shut up now XD**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly!**

**Enjoy! ;D**

**EDIT (02/07/13): I'm finally done with rewriting this story! =D (Yeah, I know, took me long enough XD) The next chapters won't be marked as edited anymore, since there's no need to.**

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Chapter 14: Scenes & Popcorn

"Do we really have to do this?" I whined from the spot where I was sitting on Carly's couch.

"Yes, of course we do!" Carly replied from the kitchen for what I guessed was the tenth time that day, rolling her eyes at me.

I had been complaining to Carly about this whole 'rehearsal outside school' thing since the moment we had left school with Spencer the day before. I had always felt extremely relieved when I left school on Friday, since that meant that the weekend had finally arrived and that I wouldn't have to do anything school-related for two whole days. And also, we always had a creative meeting for iCarly on Saturdays, which I usually enjoyed.

But guess what? Today, I wasn't happy that it was Saturday, and the reason for that was pretty much obvious.

I honestly didn't feel like rehearsing that play today, or like, ever. But Carly was making me do it, and I had never been able to say no to that girl. She always managed to make me to do things I normally wouldn't do for anyone else.

"Why?" I kept whining, even though deep down I knew it was useless. This was already a lost battle, and it had been since the very beginning.

"Because it's gonna make things a lot easier during the rehearsals at school! You two are not doing your best while acting with each other! You were so tense on stage during that last scene you did together that I bet someone could have cut the tension with a knife!" Carly told me, taking a seat next to me on the couch. Just then I noticed she was carrying a bowl of popcorn with her.

"Why did you make yourself popcorn?" I asked her, raising a questioning eyebrow at her.

"No reason," she replied, shrugging, and tossed a handful of popcorn into her mouth.

_Did she really make popcorn just to watch me and Freddie rehearse the play?_ I wondered, but I didn't have time to think about it, because someone suddenly knocked on the Shays' front door.

A chill instantly went down my spine and I suddenly felt extremely nervous, since I knew exactly who was standing just outside that door. I wasn't sure why the thought of that rehearsal made me feel so nervous, I just knew it did. I mean, there was nothing to be worried about, right?

Right?

"It's open!" Carly yelled from the couch, and the front door was pushed open calmly.

"Hola, amigas," Freddie greeted us, smiling. I still didn't know what was up with his random Spanish, but I never felt like asking him about it.

"Hi, Freddie," Carly greeted him back, but since I was still in my whiny mood, I remained quiet.

At first, no word about the rehearsal was said. Much to my surprise, we then started talking about the new iCarly segment Carly had come up with the day before, and I started to slowly build up hope that somehow they'd both forget about the play and we'd just keep talking about our web show until it got too late for the rehearsal thing and I'd have an excuse to leave.

But things just couldn't go the way I wanted them to, could they?

"So, uh… Are you guys ready to rehearse?" Carly asked us both after about half an hour.

We had already finished talking about the iCarly segment and we had just been hanging out for about five minutes when Carly decided to speak up.

I didn't respond; I simply sent Freddie a brief glance and noticed that he had decided to do the same thing in the exact same moment I did. We made eye contact for barely a second, before I quickly looked away.

"Uh… Yeah, sure," Freddie answered from his spot in front of Carly's computer, sounding pretty hesitant, and I sighed quietly to myself. Why couldn't he have just said no? Maybe Carly would have listened to him if he had said that he didn't feel like doing this.

Nah, probably not.

Carly would just give Freddie a puppy dog look and he would instantly change his mind, just like always. I found it so annoying how he'd do practically anything she asked just like that. Well, actually, his whole 'I'm love with you, Carly' thing was pretty annoying to be honest. Why couldn't he just realize that he had zero chance of ever going out with her?

"Yeah, whatever," I said. "Let's just get this over with." With that, I lazily made myself stand up from the couch. But as I spoke, a memory I had been trying to avoid for the past whole year suddenly slipped into my mind because of that last sentence, and I quickly pushed it to the back of my mind, where it was supposed to stay. I had promised myself that I would never think about that again.

Freddie then walked toward us in the living room, picking up the script he had left on the coffee table when he arrived, and I kneeled down to search for my own script inside my backpack. It took me over five minutes to find it in the mess that was the inside of my bag, but I soon found myself holding the script in my hands.

Mrs. Mythens had suggested about ten scenes for us to rehearse, but we all agreed that was too much for one day, so we decided to start by only doing the first two scenes of the list today.

We started our rehearsal with scene number #2, the scene in which Mabel and Bruno, the two main characters, meet for the first time. At first, I thought there was nothing to worry about in that scene, but I soon found out otherwise.

The scene begins with Mabel and Meredith, her best friend, talking in the school hallway. Since Wendy wasn't there to play Meredith, Carly had to read her lines, which made me think that Carly was perfect for that role, but Mrs. Mythens had told Carly that she couldn't be part of the play cast, since she already had too much work to do being the one who wrote the play, considering that she had to help directing and producing it. Oh well, Wendy was a pretty good actress too.

Okay, back to the point. While the two girls are talking, Freddie's character, Bruno, ends up running into my character, Mabel, who drops all the books she was carrying on the floor. Yeah, I know, that sounded extremely cliché, but I wasn't the one who wrote the play.

And after several endless directions from Carly about how we should say and do everything in the scene, we began the actual rehearsal.

The scene went on just fine in the beginning, until the moment Freddie had to 'bump' into me. At first, there was some kind of weird tingling feeling on my arm on the exact same spot where Freddie's skin came in contact with mine. The feeling surprised me for a moment, since I had never felt anything like that before, and when I realized it, Freddie had already kneeled down to start picking up the books I had dropped, going on with the scene like nothing had happened, which made me wonder if something had even happened at all.

I shrugged that weird feeling off, though, deciding that it had probably been just my imagination, and then quickly kneeled down as well, picking up the remaining books.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't-"

"I'm sorry, I was just-"

We said our lines at the same time, just like we were supposed to, but stopped abruptly when we looked up at each other. Freddie's face was so close to mine that I could even feel his hot breath on my skin, and our proximity suddenly made my mind go somewhat foggy. A part of my brain was aware of the fact that one of us had to say something, but I couldn't even make myself remember who. I was frozen, my eyes locked to Freddie's, unable to do anything else apart from simply staring into his eyes. Freddie briefly glanced down, before letting his gaze meet mine once again, and for barely a second, I was sure he was about to kiss me...

"I, uh…" Freddie suddenly said, abruptly breaking me out of my trance, and it was just then that I realized just how close our lips had actually been to touching, which made me abruptly lean back a little bit in an effort to try to create some distance between Freddie and me.

Carly suddenly made a loud ringing sound with her mouth, which made me jump a little in surprise, but as soon as the shock wore off, I couldn't stop myself from laughing. Freddie instantly joined me, but he wasn't laughing as loudly as I was.

"What the hell was that?" I asked as I got back to my feet, still laughing, and Carly simply stared at both of us with her arms crossed over her chest and an annoyed expression on her face. I just hoped neither one of them would notice the hint of nervousness in my voice because of what had happened while Freddie and I were doing the scene.

"That was my impression of a school bell ringing!" Carly told us, annoyed.

"No offence, Carls, but that didn't sound like a bell at all," Freddie said as he also got back to his feet, still laughing as well.

"Whatever! I'll just use my phone to make the bell sound, then!" Carly said, rounding the couch and grabbing her phone from the coffee table.

Carly made us do the scene again from the beginning, instead of letting us pick up from where he had left off, claiming that since we had broken character, the scene wouldn't come out as good as before. I had to roll my eyes at that.

And when we did the scene again, I realized that the tingling feeling on my skin I had felt earlier hadn't been created by my imagination, but since now it wasn't the first time I felt it, I wasn't so surprised by it.

The moment I felt it, I searched Freddie's face for any sign that he had felt it too, but much to my confusion and disappointment, I found none, which could only mean that he was either an even better actor than I had thought or that he had actually felt nothing.

I felt extremely glad when we finished reharsing that scene for the second time, but Carly made us do it one more time after that, claiming that we hadn't bumped into each other convincingly. I had to roll my eyes at that as well.

When we were finally done with that scene, we went on to scene #4, which was much easier for me to do than the previous one, since it only involved talking and nothing else. No hugs and no bumping into each other. Why couldn't the whole play be like that scene?

When we were done with the rehearsal, we went up to the iCarly studio on the third floor, and I mentally let out a sigh of relief.

But as we talked about our ideas for the next iCarly, I found myself unable to pay attention to the meeting. I tried my best to pay attention to what Carly was saying, watching her walk around the studio as she went on and on about something I honestly couldn't focus on from my seat on one of the bean bag chairs, but I just couldn't make myself stop thinking about what had happened back there in the living room. What the hell had that been about?

I just couldn't push those thoughts out of my mind, no matter how much I tried. What the hell was wrong with me? I had never felt anything like that before, and I couldn't quite define what it was. It didn't feel like something bad, it just felt weird, and at the same time, kind of… Well, nice.

The fact that Freddie and I had been so close to kissing once again just wouldn't stop haunting my every thought, but the fact that my mind was so foggy that I would have actually _let _Freddie kiss me if he had tried was what was freaking me out the most. I had felt as if I was somewhat hypnotized as I looked into Freddie's eyes, and for a moment, I had found myself unable to think coherently.

But... Was Freddie really going to kiss me? I mean, he might have been just playing his part in the play a little too well. Yeah, that made sense. And why would Freddie even kiss me? For all I knew, he pretty much hated me, so it would make absolutely no sense if he even considered kissing me.

As that train of thought crossed my mind, I realized just how silly thinking that Freddie was really going to kiss me sounded. He was a pretty good actor, there was no way to deny that, and he was just doing what he was supposed to do and playing his part, nothing else. There couldn't be anything else to it, right?

Right?

Keeping that last thought in mind, I dared to sneak a glance over at Freddie, who was sitting on another bean bag chair just a few steps away from mine, and I was surprised when I realized that he had already been staring at me. As soon as our gazes met, we both looked away abruptly. I suddenly had a weird feeling in my stomach, but much to my relief, it soon faded away.

What the hell was that about?

And what the hell was happening to me?

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**Author's Note: I love reviews ;D**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	15. Chapter 15: Trip Plans

**Author's Note: I am so, so sorry for my lack of updates during these past few months, not just for this story, but for all my other ones as well! I just have barely any free time at all right now, but I'm doing what I can to manage it. So if you read any of my stories, whether it is A Chance For Romance, Darkness Times, iCamp, Legends and Vampires, iSpeed Date Seddie Style or iKnow it, and so does everybody, please don't give up on me, I'm doing my best here!**

***sighs* Okay, I think I'm done talking now XP**

**Disclaimer: If I owned iCarly, I'm pretty sure I would have a lot more free time than I do now, but I don't, so here I am. XD**

**Enjoy! ;D**

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Chapter 15: Trip Plans

"You can't do this, Carly!" I whined for what I guessed was the tenth time in the last fifteen minutes, earning several curious glances from a group of cheerleaders that were walking by the two of us in the hallway, but I simply ignored them, my attention completely focused on my best friend, who was obviously trying to avoid my gaze as she looked for something inside her locker.

"Why not?" Carly asked me, sounding slightly amused by my behavior.

"Because you can't just abandon me like this!" I told her as she calmly closed the door of her locker shut and leaned against it, finally looking back at me.

"Sam, it's not like I'm moving to the other side of the country!" Carly said matter-of-factly. "I'll leave tomorrow morning and be back on Monday afternoon! It's not really that long, anyway!"

"Of course it is!" I replied, even though deep down I knew she was right. I knew she really wouldn't be away for too long, but her not being here meant that I'd have to go through the play rehearsal alone tomorrow, as well as on Monday, and also that I'd have to spend the weekend at home with my mother and her new boyfriend. And trust me, I was surely not looking forward to that.

"No, it's not!" Carly insisted. "Come on, Sam, this is not the first time I go to Yakima for a few days. And anyway, I have to go! It's my grandfather's birthday! I can't just _not _go!"

"Not go where?" I heard Freddie's voice coming from behind me, and when I turned around, I realized that he had walked up to where we were and was now standing right beside me.

"I'm going to Yakima this weekend for my grandfather's birthday and Sam is freaking out about it," Carly explained, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her tone, since she'd said it like it was something really illogical and annoying for me to do, which was probably true anyway, but it wasn't like I would actually admit that out loud.

"Oh…" was all Freddie said, but he didn't seem very pleased with the idea of Carly's trip to Yakima either. I mentally snorted at that. Of course Freddie wouldn't be pleased with the perspective of his precious Carly being away for three days or so. "I guess we'd better start working on next week's iCarly this week then, since you're not gonna be here this weekend," he said after a brief moment of silence.

"Yeah, we probably should," Carly agreed. "But, you know, it's not like you two can't come up with a few ideas while you rehearse the play this Saturday afternoon."

My eyes widened when I realized the meaning of Carly's words. It wasn't until she'd pointed it out that I realized that with Carly gone, she wouldn't be here for that whole rehearsal outside of school thing, which definitely wasn't good.

"Wait, we're still gonna have to rehearse?" I asked in disbelief. "Even if you're not here?" She couldn't be serious; she just couldn't.

"Of course!" Carly told me, sounding as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "What difference does it make if I'm not here?"

"It's just…" I shook my head lightly, trying to come up with a good reason as to why Freddie and I shouldn't rehearse without her, but my mind came up blank. I looked over at Freddie, expecting him to back me up here, but he didn't say anything, just like he did the day Mrs. Mythens had asked us to rehearse the play on our own.

The bell rang, signaling the beginning of the first class of the day.

Carly was clearly relieved to hear that sound, and before I could say anything else, she quickly got her chance to escape from me, at least for now. "I gotta go! I don't wanna be late!" With that, she turned on her heel and quickly made her way down the hallway, soon vanishing from sight.

I just stood there for a second, eyeing the spot where my best friend had just vanished in the end of the hallways in silence, before I finally made myself turn around to face Freddie.

I don't think there was anything I wanted to say to him; I guess I just wanted to glare at him a little bit, but that was already enough to let Freddie know that I wasn't exactly happy with him for not helping me out with trying to convince Carly that rehearsing that stupid play without her was definitely not a good idea.

"I, uh… I'd better go," he quickly said, and then walked away on the opposite direction Carly had gone.

I simply stood there for another moment, my arms crossed over my chest. I wasn't sure why the idea of rehearsing without Carly freaked me out so much, but it did, and I surely didn't like that feeling.

I sighed, shaking my head lightly as I made my way to the stairs near the entrance doors to climb up to the second floor, which was where my first class of the day was supposed to take place.

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I didn't see Carly again that day until lunchtime, which was extremely odd, since we usually met by our locker in the break between periods. It was almost as if she was avoiding me or something, and honestly, I was pretty sure that was exactly what she was doing.

But as I made my way over to my locker before going to the school cafeteria, I spotted Carly standing by our lockers, so I quickly made my way up to her, before she had the chance to run away or something.

"Carly, we need to talk," I said when I finally reached the brunette, and she jumped slightly in surprise, which told me that she hadn't seen me approaching her and I had caught her off guard.

She eyed me for a moment before responding, as though hesitant. "What about?" she asked me innocently, as if she had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. Yeah, right.

"Oh, you know what it is about," I said, rolling my eyes at her.

Carly sighed, closing the door of her locker shut. "Sam, I don't see what's so bad about you and Freddie rehearsing without me." She made a short pause, apparently waiting for me to say something, but when I didn't, she went on. "To be honest, I think it might even be good for you two, you know?"

I frowned at her. "What do you mean by 'good for us'?"

"Well…" She hesitated, as if afraid to say what was on her mind. I waited patiently for her to continue, and when she finally spoke again, she seemed to be choosing her words carefully. It was almost like she was afraid of what my reaction to whatever she wanted to say would be. "Since this whole play thing began, it's like you and Freddie have kind of… drifted apart, you know?" She said the last part looking down as she nervously played with her fingers, avoiding my gaze at all costs.

I was surprised at her words, which might be why it was so hard for me to come up with a response for that. It wasn't like Freddie and I had ever acted like best friends or something-or even friends, for that matter-, so what was Carly implying by that? "What are you talking about?" I asked with my brows furrowed, honestly confused.

"Come on, Sam, don't even try to deny it," Carly said, letting out another sigh. "Do you think I haven't noticed just how awkward things have gotten since this whole play thing began?"

I knew I shouldn't have thought she hadn't noticed it, but I guess I was sort of hoping she wouldn't, even though she was my best friend, the person who knew me better than anyone else on the planet. "But what does that have to do with anything?" I asked, my shoulders rising just slightly in a subtle shrug, before quickly returning to their previous position.

"Well, I'm worried about you two," she said, and I couldn't help but raise a questioning eyebrow at her. "Sam, you two are my best friends! How could I not worry about you?"

I couldn't help but shake my head lightly at that. "Carly, there's nothing for you to worry about," I told her. "We've never even gotten along, anyway."

She eyed me for a moment, as if considering my words, until she finally spoke again, but her next words truly caught me by surprise. "What are you afraid of?" she asked me, sounding like the question was more directed at herself than at me.

"What do you mean?" I asked, frowning at her once again. I honestly had no idea what she was talking about, and I just couldn't understand what the real point of this conversation was.

"About the rehearsal with Freddie," she explained. She was silent for a brief moment, eyeing me carefully, as if trying to read me; as if struggling to find an answer to whatever questions were lurking inside her mind. "I can see there's something bothering you, Sam, but I can't tell what it is. Why are so freaked out about rehearsing with him without me there?"

I looked away from her, suddenly finding it extremely hard to look at her in the eye, considering just how uncomfortable the intensity of her gaze suddenly made me. I allowed my eyes to scan the hallway around us, as if hoping that the answer to her question would be there somewhere, but just as expected, I found none.

Even I wasn't exactly sure what that answer was.

Freddie and I usually didn't hang out together without Carly; we never had, and I once thought we honestly never would. Just like I'd already made it pretty clear, I did consider him to be my friend, but I just couldn't see that happening without Carly's constant presence. The girl was the reason why I even knew him in the first place, anyway.

I guess I was just hesitant that a rehearsal like that one would only make the constant awkwardness that seemed to impregnate the air around us everytime we were in the same room together even more intense, but honestly, what could I do about it? Things were bound to get awkward later on anyway, since soon we would have to rehearse the romantic scenes a lot more often than I'd be happy with, so what was the point of trying to avoid it now?

But still, there was something else about it; something that made me feel extremely nervous about the rehearsal, but I couldn't place a finger on what that was exactly.

I sighed in defeat. I found myself unable to voice my thoughts to Carly, but I knew it wouldn't matter, anyway. She would still somehow manage to convince me to show up for the rehearsal, and if I didn't, I knew she'd never let me hear the end of it.

"Fine, you win. I'll go to the stupid rehearsal," I gave in with another sigh. I wasn't sure why I had even tried to make Carly change her mind in the first place, for this had obviously been a lost battle since the very beginning. "Happy now?"

"Very," Carly replied, smiling widely at me and clapping her hands excitedly.

"Whatever," I replied, rolling my eyes at her suddenly excitement. Honestly, I didn't see why she was so happy about something like that, but I decided against saying anything about it. "So can we go eat now?" I asked her, suddenly realizing just how hungry I actually was, and just on cue, my stomach let out a loud growl.

"Yeah, sure," she replied, chuckling at me.

And just as we were about to begin walking to the cafeteria to quiet down my now complaining empty stomach, the reason of my worries walked up to where we were, joining us as we made our way to the school cafeteria and seeming to be completely oblivious to what was going on, as though he wasn't worried at all, or at least he was hiding it pretty well.

I briefly wondered if maybe I was just overreacting, which was something I seemed to be doing a lot lately, and if maybe there was actually nothing to worry about. I mean, Freddie didn't even try to convince Carly that we didn't need to rehearse this weekend, so why did I feel the need to?

But no matter how many times I repeated that last trail of thought inside my head, telling myself that I was actually making a big deal out of nothing, I just couldn't stop myself from worrying about the incoming rehearsal this Saturday, and how my intuition kept telling me that this wasn't a good idea at all.

I just hoped I was wrong about that one.

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**Author's Note: Uhhh, I wonder how the rehearsal will go... Hehe ;P**

**You're probably going to like the next chapter very much ;) I don't want to spoil it, though. ;P**

**Reviews make me super happy! ;)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


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